Police chase in Pembroke yesterday after he allegedly broke into a house and threatened a woman with a knife.

Police believe the convicted sex attacker has been on a criminal rampage since last Thursday when he escaped from the Prison Farm by climbing through a bathroom window.

He is suspected of committing two armed robberies -- allegedly threatening a Jennings Land woman with a machete and brandishing a knife at a Flatts man.

And Police believe he may be behind car thefts in Flatts and Devonshire and further break-ins in the Spanish Point area where food and cash were taken.

It is also understood he may have been staying in an empty room of a Pembroke guest house.

Up to two dozen Police officers converged on Rosemont Avenue at about 12.30 p.m. after receiving a report of an attempted knife attack on a woman by a man who fitted 32-year-old Rogers' description.

The officers split up to hunt for Rogers.

After a brief foot chase he was caught in the backyard of a Ferrars Lane home.

Det. Con. Craig Morfitt was in an unmarked car on Ferrars Lane when Rogers ran from some hedges onto the road in front of him.

The officer jumped from the car, and joined by Det. Con. Jerome Laws, chased the six-foot-tall, 200-pound man, scaling two five-foot fences before pouncing on him.

The officers handcuffed him and pulled him out of the bushes opposite Belco before a crowd of people watching the intense action.

Rogers was shirtless and appeared exhausted and dazed.

Det. Con. Morfitt, who tore the front of his pants during the chase, said Rogers did not offer any resistance when he was dragged to the ground.

"He just lay there,'' he said. Bathed in sweat, Det. Con. Laws said, "It happened so fast.'' A probe is continuing into Rogers' escape and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness said yesterday it "might very well lead to disciplinary action''.

He said Prisons Commissioner Mr. Edward Dyer was viewing the escape "very seriously''.

Rogers escaped by removing the iron bars from a window in the bathroom of a special security holding room and then negotiating a 70-foot drop, acting Police Commissioner Supt. Wayne Perinchief said at a news conference yesterday.

"He is strong as an ox and incredibly agile,'' Supt. Perinchief said, adding, "He is a very dangerous individual.'' Rogers was taken to Hamilton Police Station after being caught and will be facing charges of escaping lawful custody, he said.

He is expected to appear in Magistrates Court on Wednesday He could face other criminal charges following further investigation of his alleged "spate of criminal activity'', Supt. Perinchief said.

"We do know that at least two females were brought into danger because of this man,'' he said.

Rogers will be taken back to Casemates either today or after his court appearance. It was not expected anyone would face charges of harbouring an escaped prisoner, Supt. Perinchief said.

Rogers was in the extra-security room because he was due to be sent back to Casemates maximum security prison following a violation.

However, Mr. Edness defended Prison officials allowing Rogers to serve the remainder of his ten-year jail sentence at the Prison Farm.

"The method of determining whether prisoners can go to the Prison Farm, I believe, is quite good,'' he said. "But you can't always predict human nature.'' Supt. Perinchief said Rogers, a skilled carpenter who made cedar carvings, apparently had an argument with a man who did business with him and also with a woman friend.

He may have escaped to confront the two -- whose homes were being watched.

Rogers, in trouble with the law since age 11, was jailed in February 1991 after pleading guilty to assault, sexual assault and threatening the life of his girlfriend, deprivation of liberty and burglary.

A team of five Police and four Prison officers headed by Insp. Coglin Gibbons was set up.

Supt. Perinchief revealed the team was going to be expanded "had he stayed at large much longer''.

A "total blitz'' of the area he was believed to be operating in -- around Spanish Point and west of Hamilton had been planned, he said.

Rogers is suspected of a robbery at a Town Hill, Flatts house around 7 p.m. on Sunday during which the occupants' car was stolen.

A man, who did not want to be named, said he left his house for five minutes but his wife was at home watching TV.

The thief must have heard her making a noise and dived head first through a fly screen, the man said.

He claimed a neighbour who heard the noise and went outside to investigate, was threatened with a knife by a man who fit Rogers' description.

The husband said he returned a minute later and called Police after discovering a bag containing cash and credit cards had been stolen.

He added he later learned his neighbours drove around the area looking for Rogers and found his car -- abandoned.

They sat on the red Subaru to try and stop Rogers escaping but he never returned.

The husband later found a three-inch-long meat cleaver and a knife outside his house.

Other incidents he was believed to have been involved in included an attempted robbery on Sunday night in Jennings Land.

A 37-year-old woman returned home about 10 p.m. and was confronted by a masked man brandishing a machete who knocked her to the ground and stole her shoulder bag containing $200 cash and jewellery.

In the attempted robbery on Rosemont Avenue, a woman was at home with her two small children when a man who fit Rogers description broke in and threatened her with a knife.

Her husband, who rushed home from work after hearing of the incident, said the man apparently got in through a bathroom window. His wife was shaken and upset, but his two children seemed OK, he said.

RECAPTURED -- Detective constables Jerome Laws (left) and Craig Morfitt (right), looking at a rip in his trousers, catch their breath on Serpentine Road in Pembroke after chasing and capturing escaped prisoner Brian Rogers on Ferrars Lane yesterday.