Residents shocked at freedom of patients

Press, 17 August 1983, Page 3

Residents shocked at freedom of patients

PA Auckland Residents living near the Oakley Psychiatric Hospital say they are shocked and alarmed that dangerous patients are allowed to go “walk-about.” The residents were responding to a statement by the Auckland Hospital Board’s superintendent-in-chief, Dr Leslie Honeyman, that three potentially violent men who went missing late last week had not escaped. Dr Honeyman said the three — one of whom was a convicted murderer and another who had been classed as highly dangerous to children — had been absent without leave. All had returned in the week-end and because of the anxiety that they had caused, they were placed temporarily in the highsecurity ward pending clinical reassessment.

Dr Honeyman said Oakley was tying to reduce the numbers held in that ward. After careful consideration, chosen patients were being moved from it to a lowsecurity ward, which was judged to be a more appropriate environment. The move was intended to be part of their development to give them more freedom, but “some took it into their heads to go walkabout,” he said. “None of these three was thought to be the perpetrators of terrible things.” However, residents spoken to yesterday were quick to criticise Dr Honeyman’s statements. Mrs Liz Fitzpatrick, of the Pt Chevalier Community committee, was “shocked.” “I always thought the ones (patients) with a prison sentence were in the highsecurity ward. “There are a lot of chil-

dren in the area. I am not very happy that (one of the inmates) can come and go as he likes,” she said. Mrs Fitzpatrick believed such patients should be in Paremoremo Prison or the high security ward should be moved outside the city. The police legal adviser at the Auckland Central Police Station, Inspector Darrell Shields, said that it must be of public concern that such inmates were at large in this fashion. One often felt that when the patient’s interests where weighed against those of the public, the latter was played down, he said. Senior-Sergeant Tim Lynch-Blosse, of the Avondale police, which handled the search for the missing patients, said he would certainly class them as dangerous. “I would not like them wandering around my kids,” he said.