A MENTAL PATIENT ESCAPES FROM CUSTODY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1783, 31 January 1918, Page 3

A MENTAL PATIENT ESCAPES FROM CUSTODY.

There are some remarkable circumstances connected with the doings of a young man, Joseph Thomas Christie, who escaped from the Avondale (Auckland) Mental Hospital on the 11th of last month. He made his way to Wellington, and asked a motor cycle dealer there to allow him to have a trial of a motor cycle, valued at £IOO, As he did not return, the police were informed, and he was arrested at Patea at at.garage where he had called and asked for loan of a pump connection for his motor cycle. Subsequent enquiries showed that the young man had been brought up at an industrial school, and after leaving that institution he got into trouble of various kinds, and was eventually declared to be an habitual criminal. After a time,spent in gaol the doctors certified that this enterprising young man was not lit to be at large, and he was committed to Avondale, from which place he escaped on 11th December last. He was charged at Wellington last week with stealing a motor cycle; also, with obtaining money and goods by means of valueless cheques. A remand was asked for, and it was then discovered that the accused was a mental hospital patient. The charges were withdrawn, and he was re-committed to a mental hospital, and was placed on the Main Trunk express on Monday night with another prisoner, under a guard of two constables, who were given instructions to keep a particularly close watch on Christie, as he had escaped from his escort twice before being committed to the asylum, once by leaping from a, train, and another time by jumping overboard from the Maori,

A Press message received yesterday states that, in spite of precautions, Christie has again made his escape, As the train was approaching the suburbs of Auckland he asked permission to enter a lav/i----tory. This was granted, but when he failed to return suspicions were aroused, and investigation showed that he had climbed through the lavatory window. As the fra in was travelling slowly at the time, it is probable that the man was uninjured. So far the police have no trace of his whereabouts.