Dieting Australian escapee caught

The escape had squeezed out of a top security jail

Sydney police have caught a prisoner who broke out of jail by losing enough weight to squeeze through a gap between the bars of his cell and a brick wall.

Robert Cole, 36, was arrested while shopping on Saturday, three days after his escape from a jail where he was serving time for armed robbery.

Cole went into jail weighing 70kg and left weighing 56kg.

Cole was wearing a fake painted beard at the time of his arrest, a witness told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"It looked hilarious," Noel O'Regan-Davis said.

A woman was also detained in connection with the escape.

'Mentally ill'

The prisoner is believed to have lost his weight in a matter of weeks.

To aid his passage through the gap, he used an unknown implement to chip away at brickwork around his window.

Officials at Sydney's Long Bay Prison discovered he had fled on Wednesday morning, leaving puffed-up pillows under his blanket to give the impression he was still in bed.

A judge two years ago concluded he was too mentally ill to stand trial.