Eagle-eyed Clare Ashton acted quickly when she spotted an escaped prisoner in a crowd.

She immediately got out her mobile phone and called the police station.

Within minutes, officers arrived and, after a hot pursuit through the streets of Witney, a 17-year-old was under arrest and led away in handcuffs.

Clare knew exactly who she was looking at and what to do when she saw the teenager in the town centre.

She was on her lunch break from Witney police station where she works as a civilian crime desk analyst.

The town's police chief, Insp Michael Carrick, said: "As she was going for her break we told her there was an escaped prisoner on the loose and she was aware of his description. She did the right thing by getting out her mobile and contacting us straight away." Earlier, the youth had appeared at Witney Magistrates' Court, in Welch Way, where he faced charges of burglary and cycle theft.

Magistrates turned down an application for bail and he jumped from the witness box, right under the noses of security guards from Premier Prisons.

He ran into the Welch Way car park, then through the grounds of the West Oxfordshire Tehnical College and into Marlborough Lane.

His 35 minutes of freedom came to an end when he was arrested outside a furniture shop in Corn Street - after 35 minutes on the loose - and taken into custody.

He is due to appear before Banbury magistrates on Tuesday.

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