By Marjory Inglis, health reporter, and Alan Wilson

HOSPITAL STAFF at Ninewells in Dundee are not alerted when offenders with a violent past attend from Castle Huntly open prison.

It emerged yesterday that an inmate serving a sentence for attempted murder and firearms charges was caught trying to break into a car during an unsupervised visit to the hospital.

However, site manager Brian Main said staff had not expressed any concern about safety when dealing with patients from open prisons, and that management were not warned when they were due to attend.

He said staff were given training to deal with violence and aggression, although not every member of staff was involved in such training.

Mr Main added, “The departments likely to be more at risk will have more detailed plans in place and give staff more detailed guidance.”

Michael Johnston, a consultant in the department, said, “We have had no previous incidents where we have had any difficulties created by any of these guys in the department.”

Ninewells-based UNISON trade union representative Robin Hunter said he could not remember ever being approached by staff expressing concerns about treating patients from open prisons.

Meanwhile, Conservative justice spokesman Bill Aitken called for immediate action to halt the easy movement of prisoners from the jail.

He said, “Once again a prisoner from Castle Huntly is involved in an incident, and while—fortunately— this time the only victim was the unfortunate car owner, there is still the issue of how people can simply walk away from custody.

“Cabinet secretary Kenny MacAskill has got to sort this out.

“From now on, anything that goes wrong in this respect is down to him—he can’t simply blame his predecessors—however inept they were.”

Justice minister Kenny MacAskill announced on Thursday that he would be ordering an inquiry after MSPs expressed horror and disgust at the case of Robert Foye.

The inquiry will seek to establish why Foye, who was only half-way through a 10-year sentence for attempted murder, and who raped a schoolgirl in Cumbernauld in August while on the run, was allowed to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting unescorted.

Foye, who admitted the offence at Glasgow High Court, and who is due to be sentenced next month, had been returned to the open prison despite a previous conviction for smashing his way out of Castle Huntly and going on the run for two months in 2005.

A spokeswoman for Alcoholics Anonymous said it did not comment on any matters involving its members or on any outside issues surrounding them.