Police recapture escaped prisoner

Ashley Waterman is serving a five-year sentence for armed robbery

An armed robber who spent three weeks on the run after escaping from a secure unit has been recaptured.

Ashley Waterman, 20, was arrested by armed police officers at an address in west London in the early hours.

Waterman, who was serving a five-year term for robbing a branch of McDonald's in Camden, north London, escaped during a visit to a mental health centre.

He was being taken from the Feltham Young Offenders Institution to the secure unit in west London.

Armed officers also arrested two 16-year-old girls at the same time on suspicion of assisting an offender, the Metropolitan Police said.

Waterman and the two girls remain in custody at a central London police station.