An apparent rise in absconders from open prisons includes a violent kidnapper who was serving a 21-year sentence.

Ola Abimbola, 36, has been wanted for weeks after disappearing from HMP Ford in West Sussex.

Convicts are sent to the Category D prison, where inmates can spend most of the day away to work or study, when they’re deemed unlikely to escape.

Abimbola was convicted of kidnap, grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon.

Police have urged anyone who sees him ‘not to approach him’ and call 999 immediately.

It comes after a senior open prison governor warned facilities which had no absconders for ‘many years’ are ‘suddenly’ seeing a rise. Mark Drury, who represents all open prison governors at the Prison Governors’ Association, told Sky News the wider public is ‘a

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