The ‘cat flap sex attacker’ who sparked a UK-wide manhunt after escaping an open jail gave guards the slip by leaving a makeshift dummy in his bed.

Paul Robson was handed two life sentences for bursting into a 23-year-old woman’s house in Oxford through a cat flap and sexually assaulting her while holding a knife to her throat in August 2000.

The 56-year-old was moved to Category D HMP North Sea in Lincolnshire in January this year after his fifth parole review, but walked out of the open prison less than a month later and fled on a prison bicycle.

Four days and a national manhunt later, Robson was found wandering around Skegness 20 miles away and was subsequently arrested.

Robson has now been jailed for another eight months and will not be eligible to apply for parole for at least two years.

Lincoln Crown Court heard that the sex fiend was reported missing on February 19 after the dummy was found on his bed.

He had enjoyed a single cell at HMP Whatton in Nottinghamshire before he was moved, where he had ‘become a Buddhist’.

Michael Cranmer-Brown, mitigating, said following the move to Lincolnshire he found himself sharing a ‘cramped’ cell with another inmate who annoyed him by ‘playing on his Xbox all day’.

‘He was advised to a do a jigsaw on his bed,’ the barrister continued, adding his client did not want to change jails but had no choice.

On the night of the escape, Robson had waited until his cell mate was asleep and climbed out of the window after leaving the dummy in his bed.

Mr Cranmer-Brown said Robson made his way to Skegness because he had been brought up in a seaside resort.

The court heard Robson had no family and had become institutionalised, but still hoped to be released one day.

Passing sentence, Judge Simon Hirst told Robson his eight-month jail term for the escape would run alongside his life sentence.Robson had denied the theft of a bicycle and the charge was left on file.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘Paul Robson is now safely back behind bars and will face an uphill struggle proving he can ever be trusted to move to an open prison again.

‘While absconds have halved since 2010 and are now extremely rare, the Deputy Prime Minister has introduced greater scrutiny of Parole Board recommendations on open prison moves.’

Robson has a history of sexually-motivated attacks, including assaults on women and girls as young as eight years old.

Police in charge of the manhunt had earlier said Robson risked causing ‘significant harm’ to the public and warned people not to approach him.They added he could be ‘anywhere in the country’.

He has spent 20 years behind bars and only moved to an open prison in February 2021 after five parole hearings.

Convict support and advice network the Prison Guide has previously described Category D jails as ‘like the heaven of prisons’.

The Government said: ‘These prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day away from the prison on licence to carry out work, education or for other resettlement purposes.

‘Open prisons only house prisoners that have been risk-assessed and deemed suitable for open conditions.’

Yet an inspector’s report published in June last year said 70 per cent of prisoners were assessed as ‘presenting a high risk of harm to others’ and more than half were convicted of sex offences.

A spokesman for the Parole Board said: ‘The Parole Board refused the release of Paul Robson but recommended a move to an open conditions prison following an oral hearing in February 2021.

‘This was a recommendation only and the Secretary of State for Justice considers the advice before making the final decision on whether a prisoner is suitable for open conditions.

‘We will only make a recommendation for open conditions if a Parole Board panel is satisfied that the risk to the public has reduced sufficiently to be manageable in an open prison.

‘A move to open conditions involves testing the prisoner’s readiness for any potential return into the community in future.If you have any kind of concerns pertaining to where and ways to utilize son and mom xxx, you could call us at the web-page. Prisoners moved to open conditions can be returned to closed conditions if there is concern about their behaviour.’

Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness, Matt Warman, called Robson’s escape ‘a failure of the system’.

‘Any absconding from North Sea Camp is deeply worrying for local people, and it’s a sign of a failure within the system that should be making sure only those suitable for open prisons are placed there,’ he said.

‘This is a matter I’ve raised repeatedly with the MoJ and others, and while it’s welcome that numbers have fallen from previous levels, there is clearly more work to do.’

East Area Commander Chief Superintendent Kate Anderson told BBC Radio Lincolnshire: ‘We received a call from a member of the public this morning alerting us to a potential sighting of Paul Robson in Skegness.

‘Just before 9.30am a number of officers went out to search the area.They have seen someone matching his description who started to run away from officers, but they have given chase and were able to detain him and now he is back in custody.

‘He was in Grand Parade out in the open. A member of the public had seen him and thought “I think that looks like him”, has phoned in immediately to say where and when he saw him and that has given us the information we needed to be able to get there.

‘We have put a lot of resources into this over the last few days and we are really pleased he has found.

‘There was a foot chase, but thankfully the officers pursued him and were able to catch him.He did try to run away, but they did a brilliant job.’