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Killer escapes on trip to town
Thursday 15th October 2009, 11:30AM BST.
A convicted murderer is on the run after absconding while on an escorted visit to Stafford.
Brian Clayton, aged 45, was visiting the town with a prisoner officer when he made his escape at around 3.25pm yesterday, near Boots in Market Square.
Police say the man was taken to Stafford as part of prison plans to prepare him to be released into the community.
Clayton, from Chelmsley Wood, is serving a life sentence at Featherstone Prison near Wolverhampton for a murder he committed in 1984.
Pete Bate, spokesman for West Midlands police, said: “At the moment he is still at large. He has no ties to the Stafford area so we believe he may have made his way back to the Birmingham area.”
Police urged anyone who sees Clayton not to approach him as he is considered potentially dangerous.
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You couldn’t make it up!
Thanks a lot for losing a murderer and then telling us he is dangerous.
The person in charge of this fiasco should be sacked. But….
there will be an enquiry that will put loads of dosh in to someones pocket and we will be told “lessons have been learned”
Its disgraceful!!
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in the good old days he would have swung, and that would be problem solved.
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How is a convicted murderer allowed to roam free in a busy town centre? Even if he is escorted I take it not in handcuffs. I know long term prisoners need to be prepared to come back into society but is a town centre the place to do it? Also, why did he abscond if he has little time to go on his sentence? When caught he will have more put on – maybe he likes there.
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I always thought PRISON was supposed to be a punishment for breaking the law, especially for a murderer given life, this shows what a joke our criminal justice system really is, allowing lifers to go on shopping sprees, from their luxury prisons, makes you wonder who they are really protecting in this backward country doesn’t it.
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Another way of reading this article is, IF he is potentially dangerous why is he up for parole, they admit he is a threat still and then release him, HMMMM Thank you for that, i bet we all feel safer now.
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So he is a murderer….why was he in a prison like Featherstone??? Surely he should be in a more secure prison.
The people who let him out should be charged as accessories to his escape!
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hanging should have beem brought back as soon as cases were proved beyond all dought.the idiots that lost him should be named and shamed and sacked.
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I like the comment “preparing him for release to the community” then he escapes and now he’s potentially dangerous! I am reassured yet again by a justice system that ensures all us law abiding citizens safety.
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He’s dangerous and not to be approached, yet was in Stafford in readiness to allow him back into the community?!? Go figure!!
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When was he convicted, if the murder was in 1984. There aren`t many who get 25 years these days. it must of been a serious murder, most seem to get 12-15years. How dangerous is this man?
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Is this what they call care in the community ?
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I think we have something sick here.How do the family of the victim feel? If it wasn’t for the European Union and the dogooders-sorry in a free country I am allowed to state my opinions and no one in Brussels will tell me to stop doing it without me accusing them of running a well-oiled dictatorship-the guy would have had a nasty seven seconds with Pierrepoint and finished on the end of a rope.Not windowshopping outside Boots in Stafford.
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“plans to prepare him for relaese into the community” followed by “potentially dangerous”… ummmm…… I can see some sort of incongruity here! As I’m sure many other people can, the exceptions appearing to be the prison authorities?????
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Police say the man was taken to Stafford as part of prison plans to prepare him to be released into the community.
Maybe he thought this was the day he goes back -
Nice on !!
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Another case of life in prison not meaning “life”.
How many more times will this happen and schizophrenics etc be released to kill? Life should mean life, an eye for an eye etc.
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10) A “serious murder” as apposed to what exactly
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Perhaps he got fed up waiting to be served in boots, questions need to asked of the prison service, how many guards were with him, why wasn’t he tagged ?.
And were the police informed, for that matter where are the police these days, all there is to protect folk in the town centre these days is a solitary pcso and the occasional store guard.
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what measures are been taken to cathch this man & why if he is so dangerous would they have taken him to a busy town centre. now they have no idea of were he is & have also but how many other innocent people at risk this man has no money & probably no were, were he can feel safe 2 hide so what could he be capable of now in such a desprate state!!!!!!!!!!!
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This man should never have been allowed out in the first place…He committed a murder!!! He takes someone’s life yet only looses a few of his own in, lets face it, somewhere he will have been treated a hell of a lot better than if he was on the streets anyway!
The prison service is obviously an absolute disgrace if they think it is acceptable to take a dangerous person in to a busy town centre and not have him restrained in some way! If they had thought to do so instead of treating him as a normal person this would never have happened!
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Please don’t blame the prison staff they are just following the rules made by the politicians.
If they didn’t then they would end up with a letter from Claytons MP asking why they were breaching his human rights , they they would be sued, paid for by legal aid , for his hurt feelings.
I am an ex prison officer, and was never surprised by the strange rules.
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