Waikato Hospital escapes: One Corrections staff member resigns, another on final warning

By Mary Argue of RNZ

One Corrections staff member has resigned and another is on their final warning after two prisoners escaped custody from Waikato Hospital in the space of a month.

Damon Anderson, 48, who was in custody for breaching his home detention, spent nine days on the run after a daring escape from the hospital on December 23.

Video footage showed Anderson shimmying down a pipe on the outside of the building. Corrections confirmed he was handcuffed and wearing a GPS monitor at the time.

Spring Hill prisoner Damon Anderson, 48, escaped from Waikato Hospital by scaling down a pipe.

It was the second time a prisoner had escaped from Corrections custody at the hospital inside a month.

In November, a 25-year-old man assaulted two officers before carjacking a vehicle from the hospital carpark. He was arrested later that day.

Spring Hill Corrections Facility acting general manager Alan Lamb said any escape was unacceptable and confirmed one employee had left the organisation and another received a final written warning following last year’s bids for freedom.

He said staff had had extra training on managing prisoner escorts and Corrections would look at changing procedures once its investigations into the escapes were complete.

Meanwhile, a prisoner handed himself in after escaping police custody from outside the Taupō District Court on Monday.

- RNZ

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