ESCAPED Littlemore Hospital prisoner Ian McLean was able to skip off to Europe aboard Eurostar, it emerged last night after he had been recaptured in Poland.

McLean – sentenced to life in 2004 for a violent attack on his former partner – was last night being held by Polish authorities and facing extradition back to Britain following his arrest on Monday.

He had been seized after police were given information he was in the seaside resort city of Kolobrzeg in the north-west of the country.

The 44-year-old had travelled there via Brussels and Berlin and police are investigating how a life prisoner being kept in an unlocked mental health unit at Littlemore Hospital was able to get documentation to slip out of the country.

McLean, who had served part of his sentence at Oxfordshire’s Bullingdon prison, fled the Oxford Health-run facility on Sunday, July 7 and was out of the country within hours, police believe.

Police spokeswoman Hannah Williams said: “It is believed he travelled from St Pancras on the Eurostar to Brussels.

“He was arrested following a significant police search of Kolobrzeg. I can’t go into detail about how they knew he was there but the intelligence did indicate he was in that city.”

Ms Williams said he had not been arrested for any crime in Poland and would now appear before a court as part of the extradition process.

However, if appeals against his European arrest warrant, it may take up to two months to bring him back to Britain, she added.

McLean is a serving prisoner but was sent to Littlemore Hospital because of his mental state.

It was not known last night if detectives will seek to charge him with escaping from lawful custody.

Oxford Health has not said how he escaped and the Ministry of Justice refused to comment.

McLean admitted wounding with intent over a knife attack on former lover Michelle Storer in Banbury that was so severe doctors could not count the number of wounds.