PATIENT WRECKS ROOF

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 October 1933, Page 8

PATIENT WRECKS ROOF

INTERVALS OF PRAYERS. The roof of the Monmouthshire Mental Hospital at Abergavenny was nearly wrecked on Saturday night by a patient, who climbed up a water-spout and ran about stripping off tiles and throwing masonry about. He kept his pursuers off by throwing bricks and tiles at them, and for eight hours delied all efforts to get ,him down. To shouted appeals he responded: “1 am not coming down until I have finished my job.” Some of (lie stones crashed into the male patients’ quarters, and in the interests of safety it was decided to clear the dormitory, and the patients were' removed to the ground floor. The patient, a powerfully built man of about 25, is the son of a well-known Monmouthshire clergyman, and had recently spent a week with his father. . On Saturday afternoon he asked to visit his brother, a patient in another ward. Permission was granted, but immediately he left the reception ward he escaped. , On the roof he demolished a chimney stack and threw it down piece by piece. The crowd which collected on the main road seemed to annoy him. and they were also in danger of flying stones. Police and attendants were unable to persuade the man to come down, and their efforts to get near him by ladders were resisted. Mattresses were placed on the ground below. The patient’s eight hours on the roof were marked by quieter periods, when ho prayed fervently and recited portions of the Church -service. Eventually, about. 2 a.m.. three attendants mounted a ladder, and at] some risk to themselves rescued the i patient.

He was not injured, but was very dirty, having, as Mr N. R. Phillips, the medical superintendent, said, done as much work ah two or three men would do in a day.