A FRENZIED killer is on the loose after absconding from an open prison.

Gary Gibbon brutally beat and killed a drunk down-and-out with a broken milk bottle in Peterlee, County Durham, in 1984.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment at Teesside Crown Court in April 1985.

Gibbon, 43, absconded from Sudbury Prison, in Derbyshire, on Friday.

Police are appealing for the public’s help in getting him back behind bars.

Gibbon, originally from Jude Place, Peterlee, cut 43-year-old Nat Cook’s throat in Thames Road, in the town.

Then a jobless teenager, Gibbon initially tried to throw police off the scent, but later confessed to attacking Mr Cook, described as a down-and-out gentleman, while in a “frenzy”.

He said his mind went blank after Mr Cook hit him with a stick.

Gibbon said he had left Mr Cook apparently uninjured and that someone else must have attacked him shortly after.

He was convicted of murder and jailed indefinitely.

Gibbon is 5ft 8in, of proportionate build, with a bald or shaved head, blue eyes, a North-East accent and has several scars and tattoos.

Police have checked on a number of addresses in the Peterlee area.

A Derbyshire Police spokesman said: “As a matter of course in such cases we will always liaise closely with forces where the absconder is originally from or where he may have family, friends or associates.”

A Prison Service spokesman said open prisons were strictly limited to inmates who represented a low risk to the public and that absconding was at its lowest rate since centralised reporting began in 1995.

More than 96 per cent of absconding prisoners are recaptured.

On recapture, convicts are sent to a more secure prison and could be prosecuted for having been unlawfully at large.

Anyone with information about Gibbon is asked to call police on 0345-123-33-33 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111.