Soft justice Britain: Ministers admit 32 murderers and rapists are on the run... as figures reveal 12 sex offenders attack every MONTH after leaving prison

  • Some 143 sex offenders attacked again while on probation last year
  • A further 28 assaults carried out by 'violent' and 'dangerous' criminals
  • Separate figures reveal 18 murderers among hundreds of fugitive offenders
  • Overall, 134 violent offenders are on the run despite being recalled to jail

By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

Published: | Updated:

Ministers today admitted that 18 murderers are among hundreds of offenders on the run despite being recalled to prison. 

Among 1,064 fugitive criminals, 134 have been convicted of violence - including 14 rapists, offender management statistics from the Ministry of Justice said.

Separate damning figures released today revealed more than 150 sex offenders and violent criminals released from prison on probation went on to attack again last year. 

Some 174 registered sex offenders and violent criminals, who were being supervised by Probation Trusts, were charged with a serious further offence

Some 174 registered sex offenders and violent criminals, who were being supervised by Probation Trusts, were charged with a serious further offence

In total, some 143 attacks were committed by registered sex offenders on probation – with a further 28 by criminals marked down as ‘violent’ or ‘dangerous’, including some who probation officers believed posed a ‘risk of serious harm’ to the public. 

The number of serious offenders who committed further grave crimes after being released from prison rose 17 per cent last year.

The ‘serious’ offences can include murder, rape and manslaughter, the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) annual report said.

In all there were just over 65,000 offenders living in the community on Mappa arrangements, which see police, probation and other professionals such as psychiatrists working to mininise the risk posed by the offenders.

The criminals have been released to live in the community because they have reached the end of custodial sentences and cannot be kept behind bars any longer.

But the Mappa teams aim to prevent them reoffending and in the most extreme cases the offenders will be kept under surveillance.

Separate reoffending figures published by the Ministry of Justice last week showed more than 17,000 prisoners released into the community after serving short jail terms went on to commit new crimes last year.

The breakdown disclosed that more than 2,000 adult offenders committed a violent crime within 12 months of being freed.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has pledged to introduce a 'rehabilitation revolution'

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has pledged to introduce a 'rehabilitation revolution'

A further 10,200 ex-prisoners who had previously served a short sentence went on to commit theft and 125 were convicted of a sex crime within 12 months, the data showed.

In separate ‘safety in custody’ statistics, the number of deaths in prison increased 19 per cent to 235 in the 12 months to the end of September, from 198 in the same period the previous year.

The death rate increased to 2.8 deaths per 1,000 prisoners, compared with 2.3 in the previous period.

There was also a 38 per cent rise in the number of self-inflicted deaths to 87 in the 12 months to September, from 63, the highest number of suicides since 2007. 

Despite today's figures, Justice Minister Andrew Selous defended the government’s record of keeping the public safe.

He said: ‘In over 99 per cent of cases where an offender has been recalled, the individual has successfully been returned to custody.

‘Once an offender has been recalled by probation, the National Offender Management Service work in partnership with the police to quickly identify and recall offenders but ultimately, it is for the police to return them to custody.’ 

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