Pentonville escaped prisoner and former Dunmow man James Whitlock recaptured by police

Former Dunmow man James Whitlock, who escaped from Pentonville Prison last week, has been recaptured by police.

Whitlock, 31, who used to live in the town, fled the London prison on Monday (Nov 7) with fellow inmate Matthew Baker, 28, who was serviced a sentence for attempted murder.

Whitlock was arrested in at an address in east London at around 4.30pm yesterday (Sunday, November 13), while Baker was caught in Ilford on Wednesday.

The pair reportedly used diamond-tipped cutting equipment to break through cell bars before scaling a perimeter wall of the Victorian prison.

Their escape was said to have gone undetected for several hours because they stuffed their beds with pillows to make it look like they were asleep.

Whitlock was on remand charged with conspiracy to steal from 19 cash machines across south-east England between last December and August and it was the second time he had escaped prison.

In June 2010, he applied for a licence for temporary release using another man’s name to enable him to walk out of HMP Stradishall, near Newmarket, Suffolk.

At the time he was serving a 33-month sentence for theft.

Baker was due to be sentenced for stabbing a man in Dagenham at a court hearing on November 11, before he fled Pentonville with Whitlock.