Inmates have absconded from Lincolnshire prisons on 625 occasions over a 13-year period, according to the latest Government figures.

Open prison North Sea Camp, near Boston, had the biggest number of bids for freedom – with 511 prisoners failing to return to the institution – between 1995 and 2008.

High-profile incidents include killer paedophile Peter Bastin, who absconded from the prison on November 27, 2008.

He was serving a life sentence for the murder and sexual assault of a 10-year-old in Leicester in 1978 and it took police almost two months to track down him down.

But women's prison Morton Hall, south of Lincoln, has seen a dramatic improvement in the last seven years with just one prisoner absconding between 2001 and 2008.

In the previous six years, 112 had escaped.

Lincoln Prison, in Greetwell Road, is the best performer in the county with just one inmate escaping in a 13-year period.

Lincolnshire Police spokesman Dick Holmes said: "Inmates go through a fairly stringent vetting assessment process before they are allowed to go to an open prison such as North Sea Camp.