Murderer could have fled Tayside

Bowden cut off his victim's head and kept it in his fridge

Police looking for a murderer who is on the run have received a number of calls from the public, which they believe may indicate he is no longer in Tayside.

John Bowden was sentenced to at least 25 years in jail in 1982 for cutting up a man with a machete, saw and electric carving knife while he was still alive.

He then kept the victim's head in his fridge, before it was dumped in a bin.

Bowden, 51, failed to return to Noranside open prison in Angus on Thursday after a shopping trip.

Tayside Police have said they have received phone calls from people in Tayside and elsewhere in Scotland, which they are currently investigating.

Do not approach

All UK police forces and port authorities have been alerted to the fact the prisoner is missing.

Road and rail links are also being monitored and a review of public and private CCTV footage in Forfar, where Bowden was last seen, is being carried out.

Know relatives, friends and associates of Bowden, who is from London, are also being traced and contacted.

This is not the first time he has absconded from prison - in 1992 he went on the run from a jail in Kent during a compassionate visit to his sick father.

He was transferred to the Scottish Prison Service in 1995, before being moved to Noranside in October 2007, where he was being tested in open conditions.

Bowden is 5ft 7in tall, of medium build, with grey/white receding hair.

He has a fair complexion, deep set blue eyes and has a tattoo on his right arm which says "Ireland the Brave".

When last seen he was wearing prison issue blue-coloured denim jeans.

Anyone who sees Bowden is being warned not to approach him.