More than 100 dangerous criminals are on the run in Sussex after jumping bail.

Police have been unable to track down 118 accused rapists and violent offenders who have gone missing prior to court appearances.

Now an MP is calling on the police to consider employing private "bail squads" to hunt them down.

Sussex has one of the highest numbers of suspects on the loose, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The county ranked sixth out of 36 forces that provided data on bail jumpers for category A offences including rape, sexual assault and violence.

Bruce Matthews, of the criminal justice department at Sussex Police, said the force's figure could be high because it included some breaches of probation orders.

He said of the 118 Failure to Appear warrants, 12 were issued on behalf of the Probation Service and other forces might not have included those in their data.

Mr Matthews added: "We are always looking at our performance and how it can be improved.

"Each of the districts across Sussex has a warrants manager and we are executing a significant number of warrants within the guideline time of 14 days."

Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel and South Downs, said police had a difficult job in catching bail skippers because of stretched resources.

He said: "It is completely unacceptable that we have offenders skipping bail. Public protection must come first, particularly when these are among the most serious offences.

"I can understand the public will be worried about this. It is a very difficult job for the police - the whole system needs tightening up."

He said there should be a review into whether specialist teams could be used to track people who skip bail, adding: "There is a case for supplementing police by contracting bail squads to pursue people who skip bail, as happens in other countries.

"Police resources are very tight and something like this could free up their time.

"These figures are also a reflection of prison overcrowding. Unsuitable people are being granted bail because there aren't the places for them in custody and the courts are under a lot of pressure."

Nationally, 3,273 accused rapists, robbers and violent offenders are at large after absconding before their court appearances.

The worst area is London, with 997 missing category A suspects.

There are 37,429 people who have skipped bail on lesser crimes such as motoring offences and theft.

Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "These people are laughing at the criminal justice system because they know perfectly well that the chances of them being arrested are small as the police are already run off their feet."