Northumbria Police will carry out a review to establish whether any opportunities to arrest murderer Paul Robson were missed prior to him killing his ex-partner.

The cage fighter had been on the run from authorities for 20 months when he sneaked up to 47-year-old Caroline Kayll’s home in Linton, Northumberland, and murdered her last November.

Robson, 50, who used his mixed martial arts skills to attack Mrs Kayll and the 15-year-old boy with whom she had been having sex, was jailed for life on Wednesday at Newcastle Crown Court.

Northumbria Police said Robson had been wanted on recall to prison when he murdered Mrs Kayll, having failed to attend a meeting with his probation officer.

A police spokesman said: “We are continuing to work alongside some of our key partners to establish if any opportunities to arrest Robson were missed and if any changes need to be made to our processes around locating wanted suspects.

“Those enquiries are ongoing but we have already made positive changes to how we co-ordinate enquiries around locating suspects wanted across our force area.”

Robson was sentenced to 10 years for drugs and firearms offences in 2014, and while at HMP Northumberland he gained “trusted” status and worked in the education department, where Mrs Kayll was then a teacher.

He was released on licence on November 30 2018 but was then recalled to prison in March 2019 after breaching his licence, and from then on was unlawfully at large.

The Ministry of Justice said Robson was released in 2018 as he had reached the half-way point of his sentence, with his time on remand also taken into account.

Northumbria Police said it carried out a number of inquiries at an address in Wallsend in a bid to locate Robson, but he was not present during those visits.

Neighbours were also contacted but they were unaware of his whereabouts, the force added.

A police spokesman said officers did not visit the home of Mrs Kayll during their search as the force had not received any “information or intelligence” that she was in a relationship with Robson.

Robson, who has 21 convictions for 92 offences over more than 30 years, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years for Mrs Kayll’s murder, the attempted murder of the teenager and blackmail.