Oxford Mail:

AS he watched the tourists enjoying the sun in the little Polish seaside resort of Kolobrzeg, fugitive Ian McLean must have felt reasonably happy.

After all, McLean – a prisoner serving a life sentence – had simply strolled out of Littlemore Mental Hospital in Oxford and, having caught the Eurostar, had already been in the Belgian capital of Brussels for an hour before anyone noticed he was gone.

And, now, after a week of freedom he must have been confident no one would trace him to this town of 50,000 people tucked away on the Baltic coast and a popular holiday destination for Poles and Germans.

Little did he know the net was closing fast due to the tireless work of detectives back in Oxford and their counterparts in the Polish Policja.

By Tuesday last week – to the delight of senior police officers – he was back in custody.

Today the Oxford Mail can reveal the details of how this 44-year-old skipped out of Britain and managed to get the 1,500km (930 miles) to north-west Poland. And it is a story that raises more questions for Oxford Health, the NHS Trust that runs Littlemore Hospital, where a doctor so obligingly signed McLean’s application to get a passport.

McLean was given a life sentence in 2004 after he broke into the house of his former partner Michelle Storer and stabbed her as she lay sleeping. He had only recently been released after attacking a man with a razor and, under the legislation as it was at that time, it meant a life sentence was given, with a minimum tariff of four years.

McLean has spent some of that sentence in Bullingdon prison near Bicester, but has also needed treatment for mental illness; at his sentencing it was said he had an “extreme personality disorder”.

He ended up at Littlemore Hospital, transferred there by the Ministry of Justice for treatment. To use Oxford Health jargon, he had followed a “pathway” to where he ended up being kept in Lambourn House, which is unlocked.

At 10pm on July 7, he was checked on by Littlemore staff.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Johns takes up the story: “It transpires that he left at about 1am, having called a taxi with a mobile phone and catching it to St Pancras Station in London.

“We know that he then purchased a ticket for the Eurostar to Brussels and caught the 6.50am train.”

That train arrived in Brussels at 9.07am UK time – more than an hour and a half before police back in Oxford were even told he had gone missing.

Initial information was that McLean, travelling under his alias of Ian Mitchell, posed more of a danger to himself than others but that would change.

DCI Johns explained: “One of the factors for me to assess was that after he left Littlemore he was no longer on his medication and I needed to understand how that would reflect in his behaviour.”

By Monday night police knew he had caught the Brussels train, although there was a fear he may have got off at an earlier stop such as Lille. Initial inquiries centering on Brussels turned up little, but then “we had a lead that he was in Berlin,” DCI Johns said.

“We knew that he bought an €11 train ticket and from there we had to work out how far that ticket would get you from Berlin. If you drew a circle around Berlin it took you to the border of Poland.”

By now police here had issued a European Arrest warrant, with tattooed McLean’s photo and details circulated through Interpol.

Some reported sightings of him back in Banbury meant searches of old haunts and Miss Storer’s garden needed to be done in case McLean had doubled back. But police still believed he was in Europe and specifically Poland.

DCI Johns admits it was an educated guess to focus the concentration on Poland and Germany.

DCI Johns’ team worked with the Polish police and had a crucial breakthrough on Monday, July 15 – almost a week to the minute after Littlemore reported him AWOL. They knew the previous night he had been in the main square in Kolobrzeg.

Unable to go into many details about the information, he did say: “We fired it straight back to the Polish police and asked them to focus around the bars, clubs and guesthouses.

“We waited for the update and as a result he was detained on the Tuesday.”

It’s not known for certain why he headed for Poland and no one else is believed to have aided him.

While they are delighted McLean has been caught, some senior officers admit they are a little surprised at how quickly it happened. There were fears he would just simply disappear on the continent – only being caught if he came to police attention at some point.

But DCI Johns said: “In my experience this was a really quick turnaround. Surprise is not the right word really, but I am really pleased we managed to get him so quickly.

“Throughout the whole investigation I was very conscious he was in a foreign country, not under any treatment and I was concerned what risk he posed.

“The Polish police were under no illusion as to the potential risk he posed; I am very grateful for the amount of resources they allocated for his capture.

“They were really, really helpful. Of we course we couldn’t tell them what to do, but they did an awful lot of work for us.”

South East MEP Catherine Bearder believes the arrest shows the value of the European Arrest Warrant and police services working together.

She said: “In the last couple of years, Oxfordshire has seen powerful examples of how cross-border police cooperation works.

“A host of EU policing measures are used by our police to break up paedophile rings, arrest terrorists, stop money laundering and drug trafficking, as well as deport dangerous foreign criminals.

When crime crosses borders, justice must too.”

QUESTIONS TO FACE

POLICE will be involved in the review by Oxford Health over how and why Ian McLean was able to stroll out of Littlemore Hospital with his passport and enough money to travel 1,500km

After initially only saying it would “communicate appropriately” the findings, Oxford Health committed to the Oxford Mail it would make it public.

The review will probably look at:

Why a doctor signed McLean’s passport application

Why he had access to it when Ministry of Justice rules are governors should hold prisoners’ passports

If he should have had a mobile phone

How he had access to enough money to catch a taxi to St Pancras (estimated cost £95 plus congestion charge), buy a Eurostar ticket and then reach Poland

DCI Mark Johns said working practices and the circumstances that led to his absconding would be looked into and the findings reported back to the Ministry of Justice.

Oxford Health spokesman Cari-Ann Wade-Williams said an investigation taking about six weeks was underway including into travel documentation and staff checks. It would be inappropriate to comment until finished, she said.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW

Ian McLean is unlikely to return to the UK for a few weeks, according to the man who led the chase across Europe.

McLean was captured using the European Arrest Warrant system and DCI Mark Johns said within two weeks he had to be put before a court to rule if he could be extradited. If McLean appeals, claiming the warrant is wrong, it could take up to three months to decide.

But that warrant will also mean McLean is unlikely to be charged with escaping from lawful custody when he does return to the UK.

Police believed he was in Germany when they issued it and DCI Johns said there was no equivalent crime to escaping there. So, the crime listed was the wounding attack on Michelle Storer and the Crown Prosecution Service is now unlikely to subsequently lay an escape charge.

One of the mysteries is why he absconded now. Given he had been jailed for wounding with intent nine years ago and being at his stage in having mental health treatment in an unlocked unit and getting day releases, he mignt not have been far off getting parole.

DCI Johns said: “If we charged him with escape, it would have no real impact on how long he is in custody.

“He is a serving life prisoner and he will come back into this county under the original sentence.

“The prison authorities will take the fact he has absconded into account for any future release into the community.”