A convicted prison escapee apologised for ‘all his crimes against the United Kingdom’.

James Brosnan, 40, walked out of an open prison in Sussex, HMP Ford, on August 10 and was not rounded up until 10 days later when he called 999 and threatened to shoot any officer that came to get him.

When armed police tracked him down in Oxford, it emerged Brosnan did not have a gun and he could not – and did not – shoot the officers.

Almost a year after he first appeared in front of a court for the offences, the prisoner still has not been sentenced.

After concerns were repeatedly raised about his psychiatric health, Brosnan was moved to Littlemore Hospital earlier this summer on the orders of a prison governor. It was despite a psychiatrist apparently claiming that he was well.

On Monday (July 3), Judge Michael Gledhill KC adjourned the case until August 14 for two psychiatrists to prepare reports and consider whether Brosnan should be sentenced to a hospital order rather than receive a jail term.

If he receives a hospital order, he would be detained at a psychiatric hospital until he was well enough to be discharged from the wards.

Appearing in court via video link from Littlemore Hospital and flanked by a nurse, Brosnan told Judge Gledhill: “I want to apologise to yourself for all my crimes against the United Kingdom.

“I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”