Diver who sparked search remanded into psychiatric care

Colin Smithies leaving the Wellington District Court. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A diver charged with wasting police time after he disappeared for days, sparking a wide search, has been remanded to a psychiatric unit for acute in-patient care.

Colin Frederick Smithies, 49, appeared in the Wellington District Court yesterday flanked by a man believed to be a mental health professional, to face the charge.

Police announced the charge against Smithies last month but the Herald understands he was unable to appear in court then because he was under psychiatric care.

A land, sea and air search for Smithies was launched after he failed to return home from a diving trip at Titahi Bay, near Wellington.

Smithies, a senior economist for the Commerce Commission, texted his wife on January 10 to say he had found a good spot to dive for paua and was not heard from again.

More than 40 people joined the search for Smithies, many of them volunteers.

However, the search was called off two days later when he walked into a police station more than 300km away at Clive, near Napier.

Police said the search cost at least $50,000 and charged Smithies.

Wearing a crisp green shirt and black pants, Smithies sat quietly in the court's public gallery until his case was called.

He sat alone and there was no sign of his wife or father.

Smithies greeted Judge Carrie Wainwright and then spent much of the appearance looking at the floor.

His lawyer, Mike Antonovic, said Smithies was an in-patient at Wellington Hospital's ward 27 - a psychiatric unit known as Te Whare O Matairangi.

The unit provides acute and intense services for people experiencing severe mental distress who are too unwell to be cared for at home.

Mr Antonovic said Smithies had been bailed to the ward and would remain there until his next appearance in three weeks.

During that time he would be requesting a psychiatric report on Smithies.

Smithies' wife was not home yesterday and a teenager who answered the door at the couple's Karori home said she was fed up with media approaching her. "She doesn't want to say anything," he said.

Police believe Smithies left his car and wallet at Titahi Bay and hitch-hiked north.

Detective Sergeant Donna Howard said it was not clear what had happened to him between Titahi Bay and Clive, but he was disoriented and quite distressed when he arrived at the police station.

"He has put his family through a great deal of trauma," she said.

"Obviously Mr Smithies has some issues he is dealing with and I'd like to leave it at that."