What it's like living in the quiet village with a prison at its centre - where killers go missing

Children laugh and shriek as they play gleefully in the primary school playground, a few yards from the church and Glastonbury thorn that they adorn with ribbons each summer. Over the road, a black barn with large tinted windows like hollow eyes watch the flitting figures behind the hedgerows.

Thorn Cross Category D open prison nestles in the bosom of the tiny village of Appleton Thorn. Take a turn from the church, pub and bustling village hall, past the playground, and the road suddenly opens out, ironed flat: A car park on one side and prison gates and a guardhouse on the other. Navy blue metal signs all along the straight, narrow stretch read ‘HMP Thorn Cross’.

Ria Reed, 37, picks her son up from the primary school each day. She lives within walking distance, but other parents use the prison car park during the school run.

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“It’s so random,” she tells CheshireLive of the prison’s location. “We weren’t too concerned when we moved.

“But, we have had a few escapes. You hear the police helicopter overhead and see police around.”

A series of prisoners have gone on the run from the open prison, previously a youth offenders institute, described as being "like Butlin's" by former inmate Troy Deeney in a BBC series based on his memoirs. In February, 22-year-old Oliver Dale absconded, and the following month Gavin Phythian, 31, was sentenced to three years and one month for escaping lawful custody and being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine after more than two months on the run from Thorn Cross.

In March 2022, convicted killer Shane Farrington, then 39, went missing just hours after a second prisoner was recaptured after more