Inquiry over escaped prisoner

McLean is still on the run

An investigation has been launched into the transfer of a violent drug dealer between two prisons.

Roddy Mclean, 59, walked out from Leyhill Open Prison in South Gloucestershire two months ago, and is still at large.

Home Secretary David Blunkett recently admitted in the House of Commons that Mclean should never have been moved to Gloucestershire from a prison in Wiltshire.

Figures show more than 80 people absconded from Leyhill between November 2002 and October last year - 19 are still on the run.

Drugs

Mr Blunkett said: "It is patently obvious, given that he [Mclean] has absconded, that a mistake has been made.

"An investigation into this individual case needs to inform the way in which we approach the broader issue... in terms of revising our approach to open prison."

Mclean was originally jailed in 1997 for 21 years in Scotland for drug-related offences.

The Home Office investigation will concentrate on why he was deemed fit to be reclassified from Wiltshire's Category C prison to an open unit.

It will also look at why he was originally moved to the Wiltshire prison from Scotland.