ARRESTED. AT PATEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16760, 29 January 1918, Page 4

ARRESTED. AT PATEA.

MENTAL HOSPITAL ESCAPEE.

A HABITUAL CRIMINAL. An escapee from the Auckland Mental Hospital. John Thomas Christie, aged 23, was recently arrested at Patea. He was taken to Wellington, where he is now held on remand until to-day, on the following charges : — Escaping from the Mental Hospital on December 11; (2) stealing a motor-cycle, value £100, the property of T. H. Oates, on January 15; (3) at Greytown on January 17, obtaining £5 by a valueless cheque from Albert Owen Casey; (4) at Wellington on January 11, obtaining goods to the value of £4 3s, and £1 7s from George E. Potter, tendering a valueless cheque in payment ; (5) at Wellington on January 11, issuing a valueless cheque to 11. Savage for goods valued aS £3 ss; and (6) on same date issuing a valueless cheque to J. 0. Smith for goods valued at £2 14s.

At Wellington, in February, 1917, M a charge of theft, the accused was sen tenced to two years' imprisonment, and was declared to be a habitual criminal. He was subsequently transferred from the Terrace Gaol, Wellington, to Mount Eden gaol. He was considered to be mentally deranged, and was committed from caol to the Avondale Mental Hospital. ■ He escaped from that institution in December, 1917, in the particular clothing usually worn by the inmates. This clothing was subsequently found by the police in one of the suburbs of Auckland, and about the same time a bather at one of the Auckland beaches reported that his clothes had disappeared whilst he was in the water. On January 15 last Christie is alleged to have induced Mr. Dates, motor-dealer, of Wellington, to let him take away "on trial" a motor-cycle valued at £100. Once mounted upon the machine, he is alleged to have disappeared. The police were notified. Shortly afterwards Christie arrived at Patea, where he went to a garage to procure a pump connection for the motor-cycle. The proprietor is said to have recognised him from the description circulated by - the police, which mentioned the fact that the escapee had a scar behind one ear. The garage owner rang up Constable Armour, of Patea, who thereupon arrested th 6 accused.