THE owner of Longbarn Village unwittingly helped an escaped prisoner in his bid for freedom.

Jayne Roberts gave convict Carl Townsend a lift after he flagged her down claiming he was suffering from a heart attack.

Townsend is still at large after escaping from a prison van on the A46 between Oversley Mill and Salford Priors on Thursday morning, when he tricked the guard into opening the cell door.

Mrs Roberts told the Chronicle the 23-year-old had stopped her car in Wixford and asked for a lift to the hospital.

"He said he was walking his dogs and had had a heart attack - he was sweating profusely and was white as a sheet so it was all very plausible," she said.

"But in hindsight, I realise it was exhaustion as he had run all the way to Wixford from Salford Priors."

Mrs Roberts said she had taken him to a doctor's surgery in Alcester where she made sure he saw a GP and it was only later when she heard a radio news bulletin that she realised who he was.

Mrs Roberts said Townsend had been speaking to a friend on a mobile phone she later discovered he had stolen from one of his guards.

She helped give him directions to Northampton.

"The surgery is next to the police station - so while the police had sent helicopters to Wixford, I had taken him almost to their doorstep - how embarrassing," said Mrs Roberts.

Townsend is white with a stocky muscular build, short dark brown hair and was wearing a white T-shirt and a tracksuit when he escaped.

It is believed he was serving four years for aggravated burglary and police are advising members of the public not to challenge him but to call 999 if they know of his whereabouts.