TWO rapists who absconded from prison were back behind bars yesterday, police said.

Jason Millard, 40, and 42- year-old Frank Dalton went missing from North Sea Camp, near Boston, Lincolnshire, soon after 6.30pm on Sunday, Lincolnshire Police said.

Detectives warned the men could be a risk to the public, and appealed for help in tracing the pair.

They feared that Dalton, formerly of Dormanstown, near Redcar, east Cleveland, and Millard, from the Milton Keynes area, could have hitched a lift and headed home.

But after the escape was made public, the pair handed themselves in at Lincoln Prison.

Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Gibbon, of Lincolnshire Police, said: ‘‘Undoubtedly it was the pressure of the media that resulted in these two men handing themselves in. We’re truly grateful for this support.’’ Dalton, who had a history of rape and sexual assault, is serving a life sentence.

A judge branded him a psychopath, when he was jailed in 1994 for raping a woman only 42 days after being released for an earlier assault on the same victim.