Convicted murderer still at large

Thomas Curtis walked out of Leyhill Open Prison in December 1998

Home Office officials have admitted they have no idea what has happened to a convicted murderer who escaped from jail eight years ago.

Builder Thomas Curtis, 51, walked out of Leyhill open prison in South Gloucestershire in December 1998.

He was convicted of murdering retired bank manager Donald Hersey at his home in Eastbourne, East Sussex in 1985.

Junior Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe admitted the whereabouts of Curtis remains "unknown".

In a parliamentary answer to Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson, Mr Sutcliffe said: "He is listed on the Police National Computer as being unlawfully at large and is subject to immediate arrest when traced by the police."

Open prison

Curtis was sentenced to life in prison after he killed Mr Hersey, 79, by beating him over the head with a steel pole.

He was caught by police after his fingerprints were found on a cheque for £700 drawn on Mr Hersey's account, which was cashed on the day of his murder.

A jury at Lewes Crown Court unanimously convicted him of murder and he was jailed for life.

Mr Waterson said the failure to locate Curtis was "appalling" and questioned why a violent murderer was sent to an open prison. "If he's returned to the scene of the crime and is living in my constituency, I want to know about it," he said.

The Home Office has argued that open prisons play a vital role in resettling prisoners coming towards the end of their sentence and stressed they were "risk assessed" as suitable to be held in such prisons.

'Softest prison'

Curtis was one of 393 inmates who had managed to abscond from Leyhill Prison since 1999. The jail was branded Britain's "softest prison" earlier this year after figures revealed an average of one inmate escaped every week.

Of those, 22 were murderers, five had convictions for manslaughter, 24 were drug dealers, 57 had been convicted of robbery, seven of rape and 125 had committed burglary.

The Home Office admitted in June that 25 inmates were still at large after escaping from Leyhill.