Duchess of York’s former aide found by police

The former royal aide Jane Andrews, who absconded from an open prison in Kent at the weekend, is back in custody after being found hiding out in a hotel with her parents and brother.

A Kent police spokesman said today: "Police have located missing person Jane Andrews safe and well and she has been taken into police custody."

The 42-year-old former royal dresser to the Duchess of York was jailed for life in 2001 for murdering her then boyfriend, Tommy Cressman, whom she bludgeoned with a cricket bat and then stabbed to death with a kitchen knife.

She had only recently been transferred to the East Sutton Park open prison, in preparation for her likely freedom on parole in 2012, when she disappeared on Sunday night.

It now seems she was picked up in a taxi by her elderly parents, David and June, and her 44-year-old brother Jonathan somewhere in the Maidstone area and taken to a Premier Inn hotel near the M20 motorway.

The police spokesman said: "Kent Police can confirm officers attended the Premier Inn at Junction 8 of the M20 shortly after 3am today. Jane Andrews was found in a room at the hotel and was in the company of three people who are known to her."

Cressman's family have spoken out against Andrews being paroled and it is now possible the murdered man's mother, 81-year-old Barbara Cressman, will get her wish. She said on learning of Andrews's escape: "She's ruined her chances of getting out on parole. That will be a relief."

As The First Post reported yesterday, the Duchess of York's security was stepped up after Andrews's escape because she had reportedly never forgiven the Duchess for making her redundant in 1997 after nine years' service.