Murderer vanishes from hospital

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A police manhunt has been launched after a convicted murderer escaped from a hospital.

Lee Nevins, 24, gave prison guards the slip while being treated at Sunderland Royal Hospital on Tuesday.

Northumbria police urged the public not to approach Nevins, who is serving a minimum 17-year term at top-security Frankland Prison, in Durham.

Nevins is described as white, 5ft 11in tall, with fair hair, blue eyes and an oval-shaped face.

He was jailed in 2006 for the murder of a disabled man on Gateshead's Leam Lane Estate.

Vigilance urged

Nevins, who has previous convictions for violence, was wearing a blue polo shirt, navy Reebok tracksuit bottoms, dark coloured overcoat, white socks and dark grey trainers when he escaped.

Police say the prisoner has two fingers taped together.

Superintendent Janet Richards of Northumbria Police said there was no information to suggest Nevins posed a threat to the public at large, but advised the public not to approach him.

"We would ask the public to be vigilant," she said.

"If anyone recognises this man and has any idea of his whereabouts they should ring 999 straightaway."

Head injuries

Nevins was found guilty at Newcastle Crown Court of the murder of 20-year-old Lee Jobling.

The court heard that Nevins and another man, who were drunk, gatecrashed a party and taunted Mr Jobling, who had been left with a limp and a brain injury after falling from a bridge in 2001.

They attacked him, ignoring his pleas for mercy, and left him blood-soaked and fatally injured.

The court heard that as Mr Jobling struggled for breath and started grunting, they began singing Old MacDonald Had A Farm.

Mr Jobling died 19 days later from head injuries on 28 April 2006.