Exposed: inmates on the run from Ford Prison

Most publicly pictured and named here for the first time, they have all run away from the jail since 2004 and have yet to be caught, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Among them are two convicted murderers, drug dealers, thieves and fraudsters - most of their names only made public following a Freedom of Information request.

Murderer Derek Passmore, who beat to death a disabled man in 1996, is still at large after failing to return from day release in June 2013, despite a public appeal a month after his escape.

Carer Tom Zolynski stole £10,000 from a pensioner he was supposed to be helping and was jailed for two years in May 2010, but left the prison without permission in 2010 and has yet to be caught.

Goran Durdevic was jailed for 15 months in 2005, at age 28, for using a so-called ‘Lebanese loop’ to steal a man’s credit card at a cash machine. He left the prison without permission in February 2006. In June last year Ford was revealed to have the worst record for fugitive inmates, with 89 prisoners on the run, one of whom went missing in the early 1960s.

We asked the MoJ for the names of all those still at large who had run away between 2004 and 2014 – a timescale recommended by the ministry. They include those who failed to return from temporary release and those who walked out without permission (absconds).

As well as the 24 pictured below, it also named five more convicted men it says are on the run, but Sussex Police, who released the photos, said were not on its list of those missing.

Those include fraudster Oluwasegun Adekule, who was jailed in 2007 for his key role in a gang of fraudsters who reportedly stole £2.4 million from clients of Halifax, HSBC and Barclays, including trying to defraud BBC journalist Rageh Omar.

He was 26 at the time he absconded in September 2008.

Richard John Agar was convicted of unlawfully importing or exporting drugs in 2007, and failed to return from temporary release in 2009, aged 45. (It was not his first offence: he lost an appeal in 2000 against a previous conviction for amphetamine supply in Edinburgh.) Drug dealer John Umego-Castano had his sentence for supplying Class A drugs cut from 15 years to 13 years in 2006 after the Court of Appeal agreed the amount of drugs involved was not enough to warrant such a harsh sentence. Yet in 2009, aged 41, he failed to return from temporary release, and is still at large.

The other two are Sedan Asan, who was convicted of deception and absconded from the prison in 2006, at age 28, and Johnny Watson, who was convicted of supplying drugs and, age 39, also walked out without permission in 2006.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Prisoners who abscond, fail to return or commit crime while on release will be sent back to closed prisons.”

He added: “Temporary release can be an important part of rehabilitating offenders but not at the cost of public protection.”

Prisoners on the run

PRISONERS who have absconded from or failed to return (temporary release failure) to HMP Ford between April 2004 and March 2013, who are still at large at February 26, 2015.

The date displayed is the date they absconded.

The age given is the age at time of absconding.

Temporary Release Failure 15/05/04 Victor Lloyd Mcfarlane (34) Drug supply
Temporary Release Failure 19/06/04 Alvin Harris (27) Import / export drugs
Temporary Release Failure 10/07/04 Not Disclosed (40) Import / export drugs
Temporary Release Failure 01/08/04 Not Disclosed (44) Import / export drugs
Temporary Release Failure 12/12/04 Not Disclosed (42) Fraud
Temporary Release Failure 18/12/04 Manuel Guio-Ruiz (39) Drug possession with intent
Temporary Release Failure 27/01/05 Arben Nuredini (30) Wounding with intent (GBH)
Temporary Release Failure 14/08/05 Oyewale Owolodun (51) Import / export drugs
Temporary Release Failure 03/12/06 Gary Robinson (37) Drugs unlawful import or export
Temporary Release Failure 13/02/09 Not Disclosed (41) Import / export drugs
Temporary Release Failure 11/11/09 Richard John Agar (45) Drugs unlawful import or export
Temporary Release Failure 19/06/10 Robert Donovan (53) Murder
Temporary Release Failure 06/09/11 John Umego-Castano (41) Supply drugs
Temporary Release Failure 12/09/11 Jose Praga-Perdomo (52) Import / export
Temporary Release Failure 22/06/13 Derek Passmore (48) Murder
Abscond 03/09/04 Not Disclosed (26) False instruments
Abscond 28/04/05 Samuel Rutherford (33) Import / export drugs
Abscond 15/07/05 Sylvian Monjal (33) Import / export drugs
Abscond 27/11/05 Oweh Ogbonna (31) Import / export drugs
Abscond 29/11/05 Not Disclosed (50) Assisting illegal immigrants
Abscond 25/01/06 Not Disclosed (30) Illegal immigrant/detainee
Abscond 02/02/06 Goran Durdevic (29) Theft
Abscond 02/02/06 Marco Napolitano (24) Theft
Abscond 03/02/06 Sedan Asan (28) Deception
Abscond 26/04/06 Malek Riahi (29) Deception
Abscond 12/05/06 Johnny Watson (39) Supply drug
Abscond 25/05/06 Abid Butt (33) Possession drugs with intent
Abscond 25/05/06 Mokrane Mahdid (36) False instruments
Abscond 28/06/08 Not Disclosed (32) Supplying drugs
Abscond 25/09/08 Oluwasegun Adekule (26) Fraud
Abscond 15/10/08 James Demorges (39) Fraud
Abscond 18/03/09 Michael Brosnan (43) Possession drugs with intent
Abscond 08/08/09 Ion Popescu (26) Equipped for stealing
Abscond 12/07/10 Tom Zolynski (35) Theft
Abscond 23/07/10 John Wilson (52) Excess alcohol
Abscond 23/09/10 Ismail Hasko (24) Defraud
Abscond 02/03/11 Leacroft Wallace (50) Possession drugs with intent
Abscond 19/08/11 Steven Fortnam (49) Burglary
Abscond 06/01/12 Not Disclosed (31) Burglary

The worst record

SET near the picturesque market town of Arundel, prisoners in Ford get television at 50p per week, hobby kits and PlayStation. It doesn’t take prisoners who have convictions for arson, sex offences or restraining orders, and the men here are deemed trustworthy enough not to be locked up in a cell.

Yet in June 2014 last year, it was revealed to have the worst record for fugitive inmates, with 89 on the run. Some had failed to return from temporary release. Some had walked out without permission.

Sussex Police, responsible for finding those who go missing from the prison but not for security, pledged it was “determined to find all those still at large”.

Despite that, it only released the names of those it deemed the greatest risk to the public, saying it could not justify releasing the ‘personal information’ on the others.

In May last year, Secretary of Justice Chris Grayling indicated more fugitive inmates would be named, saying they were “wanted men, and should be treated as such”, and their names would only be withheld by the MoJ if requested by the police for operational reasons.

In September, the MoJ’s freedom of information department advised our reporter that a request for names should be limited to a ten-year period in order to get a response.

It then took around six months to respond – apologising for the delay but keeping secret the names of ten of the 39 prisoners listed, who all went missing between 2004 and 2014 and are still at large.

The MoJ said they would not be named due to “concerns regarding police investigation and or risk of harm to the victim”.

Glyn Travis, spokesman for the POA trade union for prison workers, agreed it should not have to take a freedom of information battle to get the names of prisoners on the run.

He told The Argus: “They are a serving prisoner. They have been sentenced by the courts.

“The court sentences people to prison because they have lost trust in them – that is the only reason why they send someone to prison. When they do that, that is saying, the public has lost confidence in you.

“So for me, if they walk out of prison, they have broken that trust even further and the public should be made aware that.

“They should say, ‘so-and-so has walked out of prison and while we don’t consider him a risk to the public, he should be brought back’.”

Mr Travis added he thought there may be a “fear of confrontation” behind authorities’ reluctance to name fugitive prisoners.

He said: “For victims of crime, say your grandparents had been burgled and then the person responsible was convicted and sentenced to prison for three years, you would think there is justice.

“Then all of a sudden they turn around and see the person who has done this has walked out of open conditions, you will say hang on, he is back on the streets.

“The only risk that I can think of is about the political fear of confrontation.”

The Ministry of Justice says the eligibility for open prisons has been tightened as part of “significant work” to tighten the system.

A spokesman added: “[Temporary licence - ROTL] remains an important tool in helping prisoners to resettle in the community but keeping the public safe is the priority and last year the government ordered immediate and major changes to tighten up temporary release processes.

“A new Restricted ROTL approach has been introduced for serious offenders and the need to link all resettlement release clearly to sentence plans has been established. In addition, there is now a ban on transfer to open conditions or on having ROTL for any prisoner who escapes, absconds, or fails to return from/commits an offence whilst on ROTL during their current sentence”.

Mr Travis, from the union, said “major problems” contributing to prisoners running away still needed to be addressed.

He said: “Staff morale is still rock bottom and we would like to thank the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling; believe it or not because he has actually recognised the issues do need to be addressed.

“We still have major problems with synthetic drugs, with violence and still with the fact that the public are not as safe as they should be when the prison population is at bursting point. There is constant overcrowding and inappropriate prisoners are being sent to open prison when they obviously pose a serious risk to the public.

“What concerns us is a person who has been in open prison for six to 14 weeks. They will have been walking out of the prison going into the general public. Then all of a sudden [if they run away] the police turn around and say this person is at large and do not approach him, he is a danger – well what changed? – before he was working in a charity shop.”