A convicted sex offender has absconded from a prison near the Cambridgeshire border.

Gary Butcher, 55, was reported missing from HMP North Sea Camp at around 5.30am today (Tuesday, May 31).

It is the second time that a prisoner has disappeared from North Sea Camp, near Boston in Lincolnshire, this year, following the disappearance of Paul Robson in February.

Butcher is serving a life sentence for aggravated burglary, and was staying at the Category D open prison on the Lincolnshire coast.

Detective Inspector Paul Coleman, senior investigating officer at Lincolnshire Police, said members of the public should not approach Butcher if they see him.

DI Coleman said: "We are appealing for help to locate Gary Butcher who was reported missing from North Sea Camp this morning.

"If you have any information to his current whereabouts, please contact us immediately.

"If you do see him, please do not approach him and instead, call us on 101 quoting incident 37 of May 31 and if it’s an emergency, dial 999."

Butcher is described as a white male with a stocky build, with brown-grey hair and blue eyes.

He has a swallow tattoo on his right arm and a "Phillip-Trina" tattoo on his left arm.

Lincolnshire Police warned he may have travelled into the Leicestershire area.

The prisoner who absconded in February, 56-year-old Paul Robson, is also a convicted sex offender.

Robson was handed an indeterminate sentence - without a fixed length of time - at Oxford Crown Court in 2000 for attempted rape and indecent assault.

He was found in Skegness four days later. He was jailed for eight months after admitting a charge of absconding earlier this year.