By Jason Collie
Another dangerous prisoner has been let loose, apparently under the noses of Mt Eden Prison guards, escaping through an unlocked jail door.
Mal Conway Monika, aged 27, was recaptured by police last night after allegedly walking out the prison's front gate on Wednesday afternoon.
Mt Eden guards are already red-faced
after two of them let another dangerous escaper, Cass Mei, out of their sight at Middlemore Hospital last month.
Mei, who had only recently been recaptured by armed police, feigned an asthma attack and knee injury but ran off during a cigarette break and is still being hunted.
Police had warned after Monika escaped that he was dangerous and not to be approached.
He was caught in Tuakau near his home town of Pukekohe about 9 o'clock last night.
Monika's barrister, Shane Tait, said he only learned his client was on the loose when he tried to visit him at the prison yesterday morning to get him to sign a bail application form.
Police had been told about the escape on Wednesday but no public statement was made until reporters approached prison authorities yesterday.
Monika, a former gang member, had been remanded to the prison on charges of assault with intent to injure, assault with a weapon, threats to kill and burglary.
Prison guards refused to say what happened, but an inmate said Monika had been left in an unlocked education room and had bolted from there.
"To go from the education unit and escape on to the main street he would have had to pass at least two or three prison officers," Mr Tait said.
"It's just a little bit of a concern given the charges he was facing."
Prison official Brigid Bradley confirmed the possibility that the escape was made through an unlocked door.
A Corrections Department spokeswoman, Karyn McLean, said it was up to police to alert the public to prison escapes.
Police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said that did not occur on Wednesday because the priority was to tell those people Monika had allegedly assaulted and threatened that he was out.
