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Fed-up prisoner who walked out of jail back behind bars after 11 months on the run

A prisoner who got fed up waiting to be released from an indeterminate sentence – and took the law into his own hands by escaping – is back in jail.

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Abzal Khan is back in a closed prison after escaping from an open one

Abzal Khan walked out of Sudbury Open Prison in Derbyshire in November 2017 and went on the run for almost 11 months, a judge heard.

He was eventually recaptured in Oldbury on October 4 this year.

An application to be released on parole from the 31-year-old had been rejected before he made a break for it, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

He admitted to police when they found him: ‘Yeah, yeah I walked out of jail. The sentence just kept getting longer and longer.

"I had had enough and had told my daughter I would be there for her third birthday.”

Khan was given an indeterminate jail term for public protection because of the danger he represented and was ordered to serve at least three years four months for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life on November 20, 2011.

He was moved to Sudbury on July 15, 2016, where he remained until November 18 last year when his cell was found to be empty.

Mr David Swinnerton, prosecuting, disclosed: “He had simply walked out.”

Mr Gerard Cullen, defending, explained Khan had been jailed as a dangerous offender and told to serve at least 40 months, but added: “By the time he escaped he had served six years, the equivalent of a 12-year sentence.”

He also pointed out that the defendant had not re offended during his eleven and a half months of freedom.

Khan, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody and was jailed for a further year by Judge Nicholas Webb who told him: "You have done yourself no good by escaping when in an open prison.

"You will now go back into the closed estate and it will be some time before you are released.

"There was no force used during the escape but there was a breach of trust."

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