A mentally disturbed man who raped and killed a woman while on home release from prison in the 1990s has been found and arrested after absconding from custody again.
The alarm was raised after Keith Whitehouse failed to appear for roll call at Leyhill open prison in South Gloucestershire at 8.15pm on Saturday. He was last seen three-and-a-half hours earlier.
Keith Whitehouse, 56, who absconded from HMP Leyhill in South Gloucestershire (Avon and Somerset Police/PA)
Whitehouse, now 56, is serving a life term for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after he battered 21-year-old Suzanne Bromiley over the head with a brick after forcing her to have sex at knife-point in a graveyard in 1991. He also stabbed her in the head.
After appealing for help in finding him, Avon and Somerset Police tweeted on Sunday: “We’re pleased to report that absconder Keith Whitehouse has been arrested by our colleagues in Gloucestershire. Thank you for your RTs and help with the appeal.”
Whitehouse committed the crime during five days’ leave from Risley jail, Warrington, where he was serving a 30-month sentence for kidnap.
No one looked for Whitehouse – who was known to have a psychopathic personality disorder – for more than four months until he attacked Ms Bromiley in Brighton after meeting her at a day centre for unemployed people.