Blunkett urged to explain jail switch

Home Secretary David Blunkett is facing calls for a ministerial statement to Parliament over the escape of a drug baron from an open prison just six years into his 21-year sentence.

Detectives fear 59-year-old Roddy Mclean, who absconded from Leyhill Category D prison in Gloucestershire more than seven weeks ago, may have fled abroad. The Scot was jailed for 28 years in 1997 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.

He had been held as a Category B inmate at Edinburgh's Saughton jail, but prison chiefs decided he would not try to escape and he was transferred to England.

The Prison Service, which announced Mclean's escape, has appointed a senior official to review the circumstances leading to his transfer.

But SNP Home Affairs spokeswoman Annabelle Ewing demanded to know whether ministers were involved in the decision to move him.

The Perth MP is tabling an Emergency Question in the Commons in a bid to force a statement from the Home Office when Parliament returns in January.

She said: "It was extraordinary for a prisoner like Roderick Mclean to be transferred to an open prison, and the Home Office have a great deal of explaining to do as to why they authorised it.

"He was guilty of extremely serious offences, and still had years of his sentence to run. We need to have specific answers to specific questions about this appalling blunder: Who authorised Mclean's switch from Category B to Category D, and was there any ministerial involvement in this decision?"

Mclean's gang was caught off the Caithness coast and tried to burn the drugs after Customs tracked them using hi-tech equipment. Customs officer Alastair Soutar, 47, died when he was crushed between two boats during the operation.

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

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