Arsonist still on the loose

Fugitive Jordan Morgan absconded last June.

Mandy Leigh, whose 25 rescue animals died when Morgan torching Easterleigh Animal Sanctuary in 2011, said: “Why have they not caught him? He is a criminal at large and somebody must be hiding him.”

Morgan, 22, formerly of Bloomfield Road, South Shore, was given an indefinite jail sentence after he and Karl Heaton, then 23, of Smith Lane, St Annes, went on a three-hour drunken rampage around the Fylde.

As well as the starting the blaze at Easterleigh, which saw hens, cats, and a rabbit perish, the pair admitted setting fire to the Fylde Scout headquarters on Heyhouse Lane, a Volkswagen van on Clarendon Road, and a garage on Church Road in St Annes.

Morgan was also later convicted of trying to dig his way to freedom at Preston Prison and given a two-month concurrent prison sentence.

He was moved to HMP Kirkham after Court of Appeal judges reduced the amount of time Morgan needed to serve before applying for freedom, from four years and four months behind bars to three.

A parole board recommended the transfer from a medium security prison to Kirkham, and re-categorised Morgan as a category D prisoner, meaning he was ‘reasonably trusted not to escape’, it is understood.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “Absconds from open prisons have fallen to a record low, down 75 per cent on a decade ago, but we are not complacent and take each one extremely seriously.”

A spokeswoman for Lancashire Police said: “A great deal of work has already been done following Morgan’s escape from HMP Kirkham. Enquiries continue to try and establish his whereabouts, both in Lancashire and elsewhere in the country where he has connections.”

The Parole Board said it would not comment on indvidual cases.

Contact Lancashire Police quoting log reference LC-20150619-1140 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.