Hospital escape leads to staff suspensions

A VIOLENT criminal with dozens of convictions is understood to have escaped the custody of two Corrections officers after one left to get a coffee.

Wipei Awatere, 29, fled from Hutt Hospital on Friday night and remains on the run.

Two Corrections staff have been suspended while an investigation is completed.

Awatere is said to have complained while locked up at Rimutaka Prison that he had swallowed razor blades – a complaint now believed to have been false.

Corrections sources said Awatere had tried to escape from court a week earlier, so it was known he might try again.

It is understood one of the two guards minding him in hospital left to get a coffee and he escaped soon after.

‘‘He claimed he swallowed razor blades a couple of nights before, to get to hospital,’’ a source said.

‘‘He was due to go to court that next morning. This was his plan the whole time.’’

Another source said the escort paperwork completed for Awatere’s release to hospital had been filled out wrongly.

‘‘Court’’ had been listed as his destination, instead of ‘‘hospital’’, meaning it had been signed off without being read properly.

It also stated Awatere had to remain handcuffed at all times, which had obviously not happened, the sources said.

‘‘It’s [the paperwork] the bible when it comes to all escorts, and it is signed by management, so heads will definitely roll.’’

Awatere has more than 70 convictions including assault, escaping custody, and possession of a weapon.

Another prisoner, Kenneth John Burns, 34, escaped from Whanganui Hospital on December 11, and is still at large.

A Corrections spokeswoman said no comment about the details of Awatere’s escape could be made while an investigation was continuing, but she said the two staff members had been suspended.

‘‘We take public safety very seriously. A review of Corrections’ practices around the management of prisoners in hospital has been ordered and will be carried out by the chief custodial officer.’’

The escapes capped a poor week for Corrections, after two officers were suspended following murderer Phillip Smith’s escape to Brazil.

Robert Sikora, a qualified chef who works at Paremoremo in the kitchen supervising inmates, was stood down on Friday, and an unnamed senior staff member was also suspended after an internal review into Smith’s escape.