Broadmoor escaper is recaptured

THE Broadmoor escaper Anthony Pilditch, who had been speculatively linked with the murder of a prostitute in Doncaster, was recaptured at a hospital where he was being treated for a heart condition.

Pilditch had been on the run for a week after escaping from his minders in Reading town centre on a Christmas shopping trip. Staff at the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead, north London, contacted police following media appeals and he was arrested last night.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: 'Officers from Hampstead attended the hospital and identified Pilditch. His condition was given as comfortable and he was taken from the hospital to Hampstead police station shortly after 11pm.'

Police had warned that Pilditch was 'extremely dangerous', and were investigating the possibility that he was involved in the murder of Fiona Ivison at the weekend.