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Mental hospital patients escape
4:11pm Saturday 13th October 2007
Comments (20)THREE potentially- dangerous patients escaped from a secure psychiatric unit, sparking a major search operation.
The three men escaped from Stockton Hall Hospital, at Stockton-on-the-Forest - and it took a more than three hours to recapture them all.
They were all returned to the medium-security hospital, which treats both men and women suffering from psychopathic disorders and mental illnesses or who have mild to moderate learning difficulties.
As well as hospital staff, North Yorkshire police were involved in the search and used a dog team as well as calling in the North East air support helicopter, from Teesside Airport.
A source told The Press that the men had escaped out of a window, crossed an open area and then climbed over the 3.5 metre high perimeter fence before running over the golf course at the back of the medium security unit.
The men got out at about 11.10pm on Tuesday. One was recaptured at 11.45pm and the other two men were discovered near the A1237 at 2.25am the next morning.
A spokesman for the hospital said he could not confirm if the men had been a risk to the local community because of patient confidentiality, but he said that there was always the potential for danger with any patient on medication.
He said: "We have quite good emergency procedures when things happen and the patients were returned to the facility in quite a short period of time.
"We're basically looking at how they escaped at the moment.
"The facility has cordoned off the area and is looking at the place where the breakout occurred. There is no danger that anyone else could escape.
"Clearly, it is of concern when anybody who is on any sort of medication does abscond, but the emergency procedures were followed and the police and everyone else involved were very happy with the way everything worked out."
He added that there is currently an internal investigation being carried out into the breakout.
The three men are just the latest in a line of escapees from the medium secure unit.
Last month, The Press reported how a male patient was free for an hour-and-a- half before being recaptured. The most recent escapes bring the total up to six in 12 months.
Ward councillor Madeleine Kirk said local residents had a right to be concerned.
She said: "I think it's right that residents should be concerned at these continuing escapes."
She said that after the September escape she had contacted Myles Paterson, executive director at the hospital, who had told her security was being reviewed and the hospital was looking at installing a 5.2 metre high perimeter fence rather than the current 3.5 metre one.
Your Say YourYork Press
Geoff, says...
4:52pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Bemused, says...
4:55pm Sat 13 Oct 07
there is nothing to suggest that the blokes who escaped were a danger to anyone
Why then were they in a secure psychiatric unit?
About 55-60 murders each year are committed by mental health patients
and
Blunders that led to murder by mental patient
Thursday November 16, 2006
The needs of dangerous psychiatric patients are being put before the safety of the general public, according to a report to be published today on the murder of a retired banker by a mental health patient.
The highly critical report into how a psychiatric patient at a south London hospital escaped and attacked Denis Finnegan as he cycled through Richmond Park will reveal how a catalogue of systemic errors led to his death.
NOTaHASbeen, york says...
5:31pm Sat 13 Oct 07
ChrisGS1982, York says...
5:44pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Tinkerbell, York says...
6:45pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Geoff, says...
7:13pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Geoff, says...
7:13pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Herman The Tosser, YO32 says...
8:32pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Mr Niceguy, York says...
10:27pm Sat 13 Oct 07
Is that why 'Not Jimbob' hasn't been on tonight?
mysteryman, York says...
5:09pm Sun 14 Oct 07
mysteryman, York says...
5:20pm Sun 14 Oct 07
Geoff wrote:You're just scared of what you don't understand. I feel sorry for you...
Cynic, they're all a danger. That's why they're in Stockton Hall and not an ordinary mental hospital!
Bemused, says...
7:18pm Sun 14 Oct 07
You're just scared of what you don't understand. I feel sorry for you...
I feel sorry for the 55-60 a year who are murdered by lunatics who should still be in asylums.
Another situation where the PC Human Rights brigade have a lot to answer for. What about the rights of the victims and their families?
Geoff, says...
7:26pm Sun 14 Oct 07
You're just scared of what you don't understand. I feel sorry for you...
At my age there's a lot I don't understand, but don't you dare decide what I'm scared off. And don't be so patronising as to give the impression you know what you're talking about.
AFAIK it's the courts that put these people into secure accommodation to ensure they get the treatment they need AND to protect the public!
It's also a matter of public record that a great number of them have gone on to murder someone after they have been released by people who do not carry the can for their mistakes!
Cynic, York says...
8:44pm Sun 14 Oct 07
I feel sorry for the 55-60 a year who are murdered by lunatics who should still be in asylumsAnd how does this number compare to the number of murders committed each year by people WITHOUT mental health problems?
Herman The Tosser, YO32 says...
9:13pm Sun 14 Oct 07
Bemused wrote:Care to cite your sources of this figure?
You're just scared of what you don't understand. I feel sorry for you...
I feel sorry for the 55-60 a year who are murdered by lunatics who should still be in asylums.
Another situation where the PC Human Rights brigade have a lot to answer for. What about the rights of the victims and their families?
Bemused, says...
9:31pm Sun 14 Oct 07
Mental health peril 'not spotted'
BBC News Monday, 4 December 2006
25 mentally ill people a week take their own lives, a study reveals
Mental health services are failing to spot patients who are homicidal or suicidal, a report warns.
The review found on average, one person a week dies at the hand of a mentally ill patient - almost a third of who had been rated as a low risk.
Health Minister Rosie Winterton accepted the system had problems.
The report, published on Monday, was compiled by Professor Louis Appleby.
It revealed that 249 people have been killed by psychiatric patients released into the community over the last five years.
Are homicides by people diagnosed with mental illness preventable?
psychminded.co.uk
November 9, 2006
Around 5-10 per cent (equivalent to 55-60 out of a 600-700 total) of homicides are committed per year by psychiatric patients.
With pleasure.
Bemused, says...
9:32pm Sun 14 Oct 07
It's also a matter of public record that a great number of them have gone on to murder someone after they have been released by people who do not carry the can for their mistakes!
Quite correct Geoff.
Geoff, says...
9:59pm Sun 14 Oct 07
Cynic wrote:It is 55 or 60 that were avoidable and preventable! To put it simply - they wouldn't be dead if the murderers had still been in secure accomodation.
I feel sorry for the 55-60 a year who are murdered by lunatics who should still be in asylumsAnd how does this number compare to the number of murders committed each year by people WITHOUT mental health problems?
Sheeesh! The mentality of some people!
Herman The Tosser, YO32 says...
1:21am Mon 15 Oct 07
Bemused wrote:Thankyou.
Mental health peril 'not spotted'
BBC News Monday, 4 December 2006
25 mentally ill people a week take their own lives, a study reveals
Mental health services are failing to spot patients who are homicidal or suicidal, a report warns.
The review found on average, one person a week dies at the hand of a mentally ill patient - almost a third of who had been rated as a low risk.
Health Minister Rosie Winterton accepted the system had problems.
The report, published on Monday, was compiled by Professor Louis Appleby.
It revealed that 249 people have been killed by psychiatric patients released into the community over the last five years.
Are homicides by people diagnosed with mental illness preventable?
psychminded.co.uk
November 9, 2006
Around 5-10 per cent (equivalent to 55-60 out of a 600-700 total) of homicides are committed per year by psychiatric patients.
With pleasure.
Stockton Hall hospital
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Cynic, York says...
4:35pm Sat 13 Oct 07
So far as I can see from the article, there is nothing to suggest that the blokes who escaped were a danger to anyone, and it is a tiny minority of people with mental health problems who pose a serious risk to others.