POLICE RECAPTURE CHILD RAPISTS
Two paedophile rapists who vanished from an open prison have been recaptured.John Elms, 34 and Martin Aspinall, 46, were arrested near a hotel in Usk, Monmouthshire, south Wales, said a Gwent Police spokeswoman.
They were found about 2.40pm near the Rat Trap Hotel, Llangview.
Officers were questioning the two registered sex offenders, both of whom were on life sentences, at Newport Central Police station.
They had been on the run from HMP Prescoed, near Usk, since Friday evening.
Elms was jailed at the Old Bailey in March 1996 for raping a teenager at knifepoint.
He previously served a four-year sentence for indecently assaulting a 15-year-old schoolgirl.
At the time the judge described him as a "danger to the public".
Aspinall was jailed in December 1992 for raping a minor and kidnap.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said she could not confirm reports that the offence was carried out against a five-year-old girl.
It was claimed today the pair had been at Prescoed, a satellite of nearby Usk closed prison, for about a week before absconding.
Former prison officer Alec Leathwood, who chairs an Usk town council committee that liaises with the prison authorities, said the governor told him Elms and Aspinall arrived at Prescoed last week.
A Prison Service spokeswoman said she could not confirm the claim.
Mr Leathwood, 63, criticised the policy of rehabilitating prisoners in open prisons before release.
He said: "Within a week of moving up there they are gone.
It seems to me to be a risk too great.
We believe it's possible to prepare people for life back in the community without actually doing that in the community, so we can see no reason for this policy at all."
