Missing prisoner hands himself in

A convicted murderer from Greater Manchester who absconded while on temporary release from an open prison has handed himself in to police.

Arnold Pickering, 42, was serving an 18-year sentence for murder at HMP Kirkham, in Preston, Lancashire.

The murder was committed in 1990 in the Oldham area, and Pickering was convicted of murder the following year.

He had been working for recycling company Enterprise Manchester on 10 December but did not return to prison.

An investigation was launched to trace Pickering and he is now in police custody after handing himself in at Motherwell station in Scotland.

Pickering was working for the company as part of a scheme set up by the Ministry of Justice.

The inmates are bussed into the city from Kirkham open prison to work as refuse collectors - then left to make their own way home.

The inmates who take part in the scheme are nearing the end of their sentences.

HMP Kirkham is a category D training prison with a capacity for 590 prisoners.