Arrest follows fire at abortion clinic

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 1

Arrest follows fire at abortion clinic

By

NEIL CLARKSON,

DEBORAH MCPHERSON A man, aged 31, was arrested last evening following an arson attack on the Lyndhurst abortion hospital in Christchurch early yesterday. The man was arrested at 5.30 p.m. and will appear today in the District Court charged with arson. The police believe an accelerant was used to set the fire, which gutted a bedroom and caused extensive smoke damage to the abortion clinic about 5:30 a.m. The offender targeted a room. with two beds on the eastern side of the hospital, at the corner of Montreal Street and Bealey Avenue. Detectives believe the arsonist smashed a window to gain entry. Bedding appeared to have been massed in the middle of the room. The Fire Service sent 10 appliances after nearby residents reported hearing the alarm and seeing fire. It was quickly controlled, but firemen remained for several hours damping down. The clinic’s operating theatre was sealed off and is understood to have escaped smoke damage. The blaze was the third arson at the four-year-old clinic. It was firebombed in May, 1985, and the offender was sent to Sunnyside Hospital.

Two months later the kitchen area was damaged after paper was forced behind a grille and ignited. The clinic has been the subject of many anti-abortion pickets and protests. Abortion services will continue elsewhere during repairs to Lyndhurst, expected to take four to six weeks. The Canterbury Area Health Board’s general manager, Mr Ron Parker, said a decision on an alternative ; temporary loca--tion was expected to be made in consultation with < medical staff today or tomorrow. The board was not contemplating closing or permanently relocating the abortion service. ; Mr Parker said the fire had meant that several abortions scheduled yesterday had had to be postponed. The women affected would be “slotted in” again once an alternative site had been decided on.

Staff had been “quite shaken” by the fire, he said. In Auckland the police who investigated a bomb threat to an abortion clinic in the suburb of Epsom later found a stuffed toy dog with an aerial attached, outside the premises. An anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, condemned the threat to the clinic saying violence was not to protest against abortion?