KEY POINTS:
Police were standing behind the dock and two more flanked the doorway today as Teaahu Reti made a one-minute appearance charged with escaping from Christchurch District Court.
Reti was handcuffed and made no untowards moves from the spot where police allege he bolted in a 15-minute escape bid yesterday.
He has been named as the man who got out of the court, out the main doors, and into lawyers' offices across Durham Street where he was cornered in a toilet.
Duty solicitor Steve Hembrow got Chief District Court Judge Russell Johnson to remand the 35-year-old unemployed man in custody to July 1 for counsel to be appointed.
Reti's address is given on the charge sheets as "no fixed abode, Central Christchurch".
Yesterday, he faced charges of possession of an offensive weapon, a drug robbery of five people using a knife as a weapon, assaulting a man to avoid detection for disqualified driving, two burglaries, and disqualified driving.
Today the police had added two charges of damaging toilets at the lawyers' offices where he locked himself in the cubicle.
It is understood the police used pepper spray to get him out of the cubicle.
He is also charged with escaping from a penal institution, Christchurch District Court, where he was lawfully detained.
He has entered no pleas.
- NZPA
