Prison criticised over man's escape

Prison bosses are under fire after it emerged a drug baron absconded from an open prison just six years into a 21-year jail sentence.

Scottish gang leader Roddy Mclean, 59, went on the run from Leyhill open prison in Gloucestershire more than seven weeks ago. He had been moved to Leyhill, a minimum security Category D jail, from Saughton Prison in Edinburgh.

Mclean was being held as a Category B inmate at Saughton but prison chiefs decided he would not try to escape and he was transferred. In 1997 Mclean was sentenced to 28 years for his part in an attempt to smuggle £10 million worth of cannabis from Spain to Scotland by sea - the sentence was later cut by seven years.

His gang was caught off the Caithness coast and tried to burn the drugs after Customs tracked them using hi-tech equipment.

A Customs officer Alastair Soutar, 47, died when he was crushed between two boats in the operation.

Detectives believe Mclean was already worth millions of pounds and may have fled abroad. He has a home in South Africa.

Mark Leech, editor of The Prisons Handbook, the annual guide to the penal system of England and Wales, said: "I make no bones about it, this is completely inexplicable.

"I cannot remember a single case where someone serving this kind of sentence, with the amount of money salted away that McLean is alleged to have, has found themselves transferred to an open prison with almost a decade of his sentence left to serve. It stinks."

Mclean has already been on the run for nearly two months but a Prison Service spokesman denied there had been a cover-up, saying the local Avon and Somerset Police force were informed immediately and the case was being investigated. The spokesman said assessing the risk and category of a prisoner was down to individual governors.