Prison escapee used pumpkin to fool prison guards he was asleep in bed

A murderer escaped from an open jail after using a pumpkin and a boiler suit stuffed with clothes to fool prison staff that he was asleep in his bed.

Aaron Wood, 54, who was sentenced to life in 1998 for murdering a woman after she rejected his demands for violent sex, spent two days on the run before he was finally caught.

He had fled on the evening of September 22 and used the pumpkin and boiler suit to trick guards who looked through the window of his cell in the early hours the next morning that he was asleep.

Wood was reported missing by his cell mate just before 8am on September 23 but by that time he had made his way to Skegness. 

He was eventually located nearly 50 miles from the prison in the village of South Somercotes at around 6pm on 24 September - armed with a knife.

Lincoln Crown Court heard Wood was serving a life sentence for the murder of lonely Rachel Smith, 40, after a chance meeting at Kidderminster Hospital.

Wood talked the vulnerable woman into letting him return home with her but when she rejected his sex demands, he stabbed and strangled her before setting bedclothes alight in an attempt to burn the corpse, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Wood used broken glass to mutilate Miss Smith's naked body which was found 12 hours later by a friend. Her flesh was smoke-charred but the blaze had failed to take hold.

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The court heard that Wood later confessed to a prisoner that he had carried out the killing because Miss Smith had rebuked him.

Wood - then aged 28 - reportedly showed no emotion as Judge Michael Mott told him he was a 'disturbed, violent and dangerous young man'.

Lincoln Crown Court heard on Monday that Wood - who also has convictions robberies, possession of weapons and violence - was sentenced to a minimum term of 16 years imprisonment when he received a life sentence at Worcester Crown Court in November, 1998.

He had been moved to North Sea Camp open prison in Boston, Lincs. in August.

Phil Howes, prosecuting, told the court: 'It is an open establishment, there are no boundaries, no borders. Inmates are trusted not to leave, but leave he did.

'Wood hid his disappearance by stuffing a boiler suit full of clothing and using a pumpkin as a head. This was enough to fool a check at 1.15am when a member of prison staff looked through the cell window.'

Wood was spotted by members of the public in the Skegness area on 23 September and assured them that he was on a recce for a charity walk. Police issued an appeal for information - urging members of the public not to approach him - and received a call from a family in Skegness who had let him stay overnight in their caravan on September 23.

Wood, who has a distinctive scar on his forehead and a tattoo with the words AC/DC on his right forearm, remained silent when he was handcuffed. A knife stolen from the caravan was found among his possessions which Wood said he had taken so he could cut up his food.

Wood pleaded guilty to escaping from custody and possessing a bladed article at court on Monday.

The court heard Wood had 29 previous convictions for 110 offences over a 17 year period.

They included two previous escapes, nine house burglaries, three bladed weapon offences, grievous bodily harm and assault causing actual bodily harm.

During his police interview Wood admitted making the 'crow man' to fool prison staff and said he was walking to Whitby where he believed his mother had last been living.

Michael Cranmer-Brown, mitigating, said Wood had severe mental health anxieties at the time of his escape and had become frustrated after spending over a decade in prison longer than his minimum term sentence.

'He thought he was never going to get out,' Mr Cranmer-Brown explained.

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Mr Cranmer-Brown said Wood met members of the public during his journey along the Lincolnshire coast but offered no threat and falsely claimed he was on a charity walk.

The court heard Wood has now been returned to stricter prison conditions and faces a wait of at least 20 months before he can go before a Parole Board.

Judge Simon Hirst told Wood he had to pass a sentence of eight months imprisonment on him for the two offences.

But Judge Hirst said the reality was that under the terms of his life sentence Wood would never be released from custody until he satisfied a Parole Board.

'An escape and having a knife will not impress them,' Judge Hirst added.

In a report of the murder from 1998, Miss Smith was described as a depressed alcoholic who had been taken to Kidderminster Hospital after slashing her wrists.

Wood walked into casualty from a drinking session and complained of chest pains. The couple were filmed by a security camera as they left the hospital in a taxi for Miss Smith's flat in, Kidderminster, said Mr David Farrer QC, prosecuting told the court.

Wood locked her flat doors after the murder - the keys were found dumped in a garden - threw his victim's necklace down his mother's toilet and washed blood off his jeans and T-shirt to prevent DNA analysis.

But, said Mr Farrer, in an unguarded moment Wood confessed the crime to a convicted burglar, Ian Graham, in a cell at Shrewsbury prison.

Graham, who was serving three years for raids on pensioners' homes, told the jury: 'He said he ended up strangling her because she rebuked him.

'It was a disgusting crime. I was not interested in any reward or favours from the authorities.'

Miss Smith came to live in Kidderminster after a history of drunken behaviour at her parents' home in Hagley, the court heard. She was known for scrounging drinks from strangers in bars where she met a string of boyfriends.

But she was a popular woman without enemies whose family kept in touch with her. Her brother David was a Worcester doctor.