FUGITIVE prisoner Ian McLean had a passport application signed by a doctor at Littlemore Hospital before he skipped abroad, it has been claimed.

McLean – given a life sentence in 2004 for a savage knife attack on his former partner Michelle Storer – faces extradition back to the UK from Poland, where he fled after leaving an unlocked mental health unit at Littlemore Hospital earlier this month.

McLean, 44, left the UK on the Eurostar from St Pancras and went to Brussels, just hours after he escaped from the Oxford Health-run facility. From there he is believed to have travelled to Berlin and then on to the Baltic seaside resort city of Kolobrzeg, in north-west Poland.

The Oxford Mail can reveal that he was travelling on a legitimate UK passport issued in the name of an alias – Ian Mitchell.

Miss Storer, who is furious he was in an unlocked unit and able to escape, said: “I was told that the doctor at Littlemore signed for his passport.”

Asked about the passport application, Oxford Health spokesman Alistair Duncan would only say: “A detailed investigation is under way examining the circumstances surrounding his departure from the unit.

“This includes his use of travel documentation.

“It would be wrong to comment on specifics such as these while this investigation takes place, however, we are keen to address the concerns of Ms Storer and would be happy to meet her to discuss these.”

Mr Duncan said there was a process for holding patients’ items like passports but refused to answer if the hospital knew if McLean had his.

Police spokeswoman Hannah Williams said: “Our investigation suggested that he travelled on a passport in the name of Ian Mitchell. It is believed to be a genuine document.”

On Thursday the Oxford Mail reported how Miss Storer lived for eight days in terror following McLean’s escape on July 7.