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A dangerous killer recaptured by police yesterday had been unsupervised when he escaped from a prison work party.
John Ericson, sentenced to life in prison in 2000 after bludgeoning his wife Sandra to death with an axe while she was asleep in their Blenheim home, was found by police near the inter-island ferry terminal in Wellington yesterday afternoon, still wearing his distinctive grey prison clothes, after a spate of calls from the public.
The 45-year-old had wandered away from a five-strong unsupervised work gang gardening outside Wellington Prison on Friday morning.
A massive hunt in the Miramar area involving armed police, Iroquois helicopters and tracker dogs failed to find him.
Police warned the public Ericson was dangerous and should not be approached.
The Herald on Sunday has discovered that Ericson's escape was the second from the prison by a dangerous criminal in five months.
In June convicted kidnapper and armed robber Reon Kiwi, 30, forced the lock-down of a local primary school after fleeing while also on gardening work duty outside the prison.
Despite police concerns, the Corrections Department described Ericson as low risk.
Ericson was not being supervised at the time he "walked", though the team was being "mustered", or checked every hour, national systems and security manager Karen Urwin said.
