AS predicted, both the mental health and justice authorities do not fare well in the report of Ian McLean’s moonlight departure from Littlemore Hospital.

Mr McLean, you will recall, was given a life sentence for a violent attack on a former lover but was at Littlemore for treatment for mental illness.

In July he walked out of the unlocked Lambourn House facility at about 1am one Monday and, armed with a passport in his back pocket, managed to get all the way to Brussels before staff back in Oxford even woke up to the fact he was gone.

He managed to get to Poland, presumably trying to track down a Littlemore Hospital worker he knew was there, before police managed to apprehend him.

He then died – it is believed by his own hand – in a Polish prison whilst awaiting extradition.

Today we report on the in-house investigation into his escape.

The newest element is an admission that he was able to dupe staff at Littlemore into thinking he was tucked up in bed because he stuffed a couple of pillows under his blankets.

This ruse is the type of stuff usually limited to boys’ war comics and there must be serious concern that staff charged with the care of a man with the history of violence were so lackadaisical in their nighttime checks.

And there is still the issue of why he was allowed to have a passport in the first place. The answer is there weren’t any rules in place to say he wasn’t, amazingly.

It’s a rather damning indictment of the Ministry of Justice for not having a proper system in place and of the common sense of hospital managers not to foresee serving prisoners probably shouldn’t have access to their passports, and flagging it up as an issue.

This is not about Ian McLean.

This is about mental health and justice organisations clearly failing in their duty of care to the public and to their prisoners.