This week has seen another case of a convicted murderer ‘disappear’ from prison. Darren Jackson who is serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of Gill Ellis a young girl in Burnley in 1984. He was jailed for life in 1986. This would be bad enough in itself but it appears this was not the first time the prisoner had escaped. Apparently he also escaped from HMP Ranby in 1997. I asked the Leader of the House of Commons yesterday for a statement from the government what was being done to improve the situation. This is not an isolated incident because figures from the Ministry of Justice show that over a five year period 61 prisoners convicted of murder had absconded from prison. So these cases are running at the rate of one a month.
Today I am dealing with a variety of constituent cases and this morning I am visiting and opening the new St.Vincent’s housing scheme in Bury.
David Nuttall 