Escaper may keep his liberty

Press, 19 January 1979, Page 1

Escaper may keep his liberty

The escaped Sunnyside Hospital inmate, Denzil Raymond Henry Slyfield, aged 43, who has been at large since Monday, could legally bi a free man if he manages to avoid detection for three months, reports the Press Association.

After he had finished his iour-year term of imprisonment in the custody of 'he mental hospital, Slyfield was kept on as a committed patient. But having escaped he will be allowed, under section 67 of the Mental Health Act, to remain free after three months at large. As far as the police are concerned, Slyfield, once known as the “Waldronville gunman,” has served his

sentence and was detained under the Mental Health Act,

de was convicted in 1974 of recklessly discharging a firearm, abduction, theft, burglary, and car conversion.

His arrest followed a long manhunt in the Waldron-ville-Brighton area, after a Dunedin farmer, aged 40, was shot in the face at close range in a parked car. The gunman then fired at a woman in the car, but missed, and commandeered the car, which later was found abandoned at Fairfield. Unless Slyfield commits criminal offences or is retaken within three months of hi' escape, he cannot be imprisoned or returned to the mental hospital.

Under the act, this period of freedom deems a committed patient to be discharged. The police issued warnings on Tuesday to the public not to approach Slyfield under any circumstance. At the time of the manhunt he was described as “hostile and dangerous.” The acting superintendent of Sunnyside Hospital, (Dr A. Jones) said yesterday that Slyfield had been “moving towards release.”

The staff no longer considered him "seriously mentally disturbed,” he said.

While at the hospital, Slyfield had read psychiatric books and may well have studied the Mental Health Act, Dr Jones said. Slyfield had been allowed

out of the hospital in the company of friends, and as he had been doing occupational therapy he had been examining work opportunities in Christchurch.

The hospital authorities are well aware of the provisions of section 67 of the act. Dr Jones said the probable official reason for the section was that if a patient was able to live at large for three months be should not have to be admitted again.

The Director of Mental Health (Dr S. W. P. Mirams) confirmed that three months a. large without bis getting into trouble would qualify Slyfield for freedom. Slyfield’s “special patient” status lapsed when the term of his prison sentence expired, he said.

Special patients were exempt from the provisions of section 67.

Dr Mirams said he suspected that Slyfield would be familiar with .he section as it is thought he was once a member of the psychiatric nursing staff at Seacliff Mental Hospital.

Since his disappearance there has been only one confirmed sighting of Slyfield, in Christchurch on Tuesday. Although the field of his intended destination has now widened, he may still be heading home to Dunedin. Slyfield is 181 cm (6ft lin) tali, weighs 58kg (9st 71b) and is clean shaven with fair hair and grey eyes. He was last seen wearing a grey gaberdine raincoat.