A prisoner who escaped from Ford open jail has been re-arrested after more than two months on the run.

James Cross, 47, absconded from the open prison on November 2.

Police were worried he could be heading for the West Country to find his former girlfriend, who he had brutally attacked in 1999.

He was arrested in Twyford, Berkshire, and was being held yesterday at HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire.

Cross was sentenced to life in prison after trying to murder his former partner of seven years, Zoe Hope, in Exmouth, Devon.

Last week, The Argus revealed Ford Open Prison had one of the worst records in Britain for convicts who walk out and never return.

More than 50 prisoners who have absconded from the jail near Arundel since 1998 remain at large.

Last year, 91 inmates left, more than five times as many as in 1994.

The revelation prompted concerns prisoners serving longer sentences and more likely to abscond were being sent to the prison.

Roy Adams, of Exeter Police, said Ms Hope, who had been given a new identity and address by police, had been informed of his arrest.

He added: "We are relieved that the trauma for Cross' ex-girlfriend is now over. It was a very traumatic time for her, not knowing where he was."

In 1999, Cross, originally from Preston in Lancashire, travelled to Exmouth after hearing Ms Hope was seeing another man.

He broke into her home in the middle of the night to find her in bed with the man. He did not wake the couple, but used a lipstick to scrawl a terrifying message on the bedroom wall saying: "Today you live, tomorrow you die. Back soon, any time I choose."

He later went back to the property disguised with a false beard and moustache and wearing a builder's jacket and green safety helmet.

He held Ms Hope and two children hostage in the flat and stabbed her with a knife. He also hit her over the head with an iron bar before escaping.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said the force was on a state of "high alert" in case he came back into the region.

He said: "He made threats during his time in prison against the officers who dealt with him. He said he was going to get those responsible for bringing him to justice."