{"id":350428,"date":"2026-01-03T19:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/350428\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T19:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:07:08","slug":"murderer-among-two-prisoners-at-large-after-absconding-on-new-years-day-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/350428\/","title":{"rendered":"Murderer among two prisoners at large after absconding on New Year’s Day | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two prisoners are being hunted by police after absconding from jail on New Year’s Day.<\/p>\n

Avon and Somerset Police are searching for Matthew Armstrong and Daniel Washbourne, who both have a history of violent offences, with Armstrong convicted of murder.<\/p>\n

A third prisoner, suspected of having absconded at the same time, was arrested in Bristol today.<\/p>\n

\"Daniel<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Daniel Washbourne, 40. Pic: Avon and Somerset Police<\/p>\n

The men fled from HMP Leyhill in South Gloucestershire between 5pm and 8pm on 1 January.<\/p>\n

Police have warned anyone who may spot the prisoners to stay away from them and call 999.<\/p>\n

Armstrong, 35, and who has known links to Warwickshire, has been described as white, about 5ft 9ins, with ginger hair and scars on his forehead.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

He was last seen wearing a burgundy\/orange coat, grey cap, grey tracksuit bottoms with blue on the side, and black boots.<\/p>\n

Armstrong was convicted in the late 2000s of a murder that occurred during a robbery in Warwickshire.<\/p>\n

Washbourne, 40, and who has known links to Herefordshire, has been described as white, about 5ft 6ins, slim, with brown hair and clean shaven.<\/p>\n

He was last seen wearing a cream fleece, blue tracksuit bottoms, blue hat and black trainers.<\/p>\n

He has previous convictions for violence and false imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Avon and Somerset Police said they were informed about the absconders on Thursday evening as they fled.<\/p>\n

The force has shared CCTV footage of what the absconders wore on the day they escaped, as it appealed to the public for information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two prisoners are being hunted by police after absconding from jail on New Year’s Day. Avon and Somerset…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-350428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}