Mystery as prisoner ID card of murdering rapist ends up near a row of Northampton shops

Passer-by Clive Ellis found the item broken in half in Kingsley Park Terrace a fortnight ago and decided to get in touch with the Chronicle and Echo earlier this week.

The Identification card belonged to the violent murderer Craig Keogh, who was found guilty of raping 72-year-old pensioner Jane Hings before killing her at her home in Fleckney, Leicestershire last year.

A trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard Keogh, 26, raped Ms Hings twice before smothering her with a pillow and stealing her belongings.

He was sentenced to 32 years in prison for the crimes in March and initially sent to HMP Woodhill near Milton Keynes.

But Northamptonshire Police and The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have confirmed Keogh is not on the run and is not a danger to the public - despite the discarded prison tag.

The violent former factory worker is currently locked up at Full Sutton prison in East Riding, Yorkshire and would have no need for the HMP Woodhill ID card pictured above any more.

But neither the police nor the MoJ could explain how the broken ID card ended up near a row of shops in Northampton unless it had, somehow, been discarded in transit between the two prisons.

Gardener Mr Ellis, 52, who found the card by the Red Cross charity shop, said: "When I saw category A prisoner on it I thought, this must be someone pretty serious.

"It's weird, I don't know how it got there.

"All I can think is the prison guards must have parked up there to go to the shops and just dropped it."