Inept robber proves better at escaping

Brett King made repeated escape attempts from a secure care facility. File photo / NZ Herald

A young man who was arrested for being a particularly inept armed robber has proved to be better at escaping from custody.

Brett Allan King appeared at a Christchurch District Court session in the men's prison today and admitted three escaping charges.

He first came before the courts 13 months ago, as a shaven headed 21-year-old with an intellectual deficit, accused of making threats and demanding money from Asian people in the Upper Riccarton area.

He told police he had been drinking with friends who sent him out to get money to buy cannabis.

He used a knife to threaten people and entered shops to demand money, but had no luck at all because people would not take him seriously.

He was given a home detention sentence to live with his mother but found he was unable to comply with the rules and cut off the electronic monitoring bracelet and left home.

Judge Jane Farish then jailed him for 14 months but declared him a care recipient to serve the sentence in a secure care facility.

That facility was Hillmorton Hospital where he has apparently proved to be a handful.

Police prosecutor Ruth Thomas told Judge Michael Crosbie today that King was allowed to go to a gymnasium on the hospital site on June 8. While at the gym he told staff he was going to escape, and then did. He was found and returned to the unit three hours later.

On June 13, while being escorted to an appointment away from the hospital, he escaped again but was returned to the hospital after three hours.

The next day, he smashed a window, climbed out, scrambled under a security fence and was found four hours later in Linwood.

He told the police: "I'm going to jail anyway. I might as well have as much fun as I can until I get there."

Judge Crosbie remanded him in custody for sentencing at the Rangiora Court House on July 1. He ordered a pre-sentence report.

- NZPA