Killers and sex offenders released from jail by mistake!

Killers and sex offenders are among more than 150 criminals who have been released from jail by mistake.

A Sunday Post probe has uncovered evidence from across the UK of bungling prison chiefs accidentally letting dangerous lags walk free at a rate of one a week.

Among recent blunders is a murderer who was released from prison only to kill a man just hours later.

Last night, campaigners slammed the errors. Claire Waxman, of charity Voice4Victims, said: “If some of these offenders are released early by mistake, it is unlikely they have been rehabilitated and this puts both the victim and general public at risk.”

New figures revealed that between April 2011 and March 2014, 136 lags were freed by mistake in England and Wales. Three of those had been caged for sexual offences and 11 for violent crime. The list also included 16 burglars, 20 drug criminals and four fraudsters.

Among the reasons given for the errors were misfiled warrants, identity issues and paperwork mistakes.

In Scotland, 19 prisoners were released in error over a similar three-year period.

Adam Pemberton, of Victim Support, said: “It’s critical those responsible make sure this never happens again. For victims, finding out an offender has been released by mistake can leave them feeling vulnerable, stressed and scared.”

It has not been revealed how many of the 155 prisoners released by mistake across Britain were recaptured but in some cases inmates handed themselves in voluntarily.

In others, police forces have had to launch large-scale manhunts to track them down.

Westminster Conservative MP Philip Davies, who uncovered the figures for England and Wales, said: “The first duty of the prison service should be to protect the public and to ensure dangerous criminals sent to prison are safely locked away. “These figures show how shambolic the situation is and how tragic the consequences are when they get things so wrong.”

Among the prisons to have made repeated blunders was Glasgow’s Barlinnie, where seven criminals were wrongly released.

HMP Kilmarnock blundered on three occasions while Edinburgh and Polmont both let prisoners free twice.

In England, Birmingham Prison, run by private operator G4S, let three prisoners walk free by mistake during 2012.

Westminster Prisons Minister Andrew Selous said: “Releases in error are taken extremely seriously and this type of incident is a very rare but regrettable occurrence.

“The number of incidents has fallen significantly in recent years with figures down by a quarter compared to 2009/10. Every incident is investigated and the majority are quickly returned to custody.”

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said the accidental release of a prisoner often involves more than one agency. He said: “It can be a complicated calculation, in which there are multiple short sentences, and, in, some cases, multiple warrants.

“In 2013/14 there were 27,000 releases from prison compared to three releases in error for the same period, so these errors represent a very small proportion. All releases in error are referred to the police and all cases are also internally reviewed.”

G4S said:“These incidents are extremely rare and we work hard to ensure all necessary procedures are in place to prevent them. Each case is investigated and, where necessary, improvements are made.”

Amongst the blunders was Anthony

Douglas, who was released from open jail HMP Hewell in Worcestershire by accident in July because he had the same surname as another inmate due for release. Officers tracked down the convict the next day.

In October last year, murderer Alan Giles, who was serving two life sentences for kidnapping and killing a teenager, went on the run from HMP Hewell.

The 56-year-old had been allowed out on day release before absconding and was finally recaptured after nine days on the run.

Meanwhile, a catalogue of blunders led to the temporary release of a murderer who went on to kill a good Samaritan just hours after walking out of jail. Ian McLoughlin was serving a life sentence when prison staff allowed him “release on temporary licence”.

McLoughlin, 55, stabbed to death Graham Buck, 66, in 2013 when Mr Buck went to assist his elderly neighbour during a robbery at his home in Hertfordshire.

He had been released from Spring Hill open prison near Aylesbury only hours earlier on his first unsupervised day release.

Last month, an inquiry by Nick Hardwick, chief inspector of prisons, found staff didn’t review McLoughlin’s offender assessment system on his arrival at the open prison and there had been “a failure to undertake a formal risk assessment” of the killer.

And a murder suspect was released from a high-security prison by mistake in August leading to the collapse of his trial

Prison officers at HMP Lincoln handed Martynas Kupstys, 25, his belongings and, despite his protests, said he had to leave.

The blunder came to light shortly after and police launched a full-scale search. Kupstys was found hours later and returned to custody. His case will return to court in March.