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Murder suspect and 'burglar' flee from secure unit
Danny Brierley19.11.08
A MURDER suspect and a man accused of burglary have escaped from a south London mental health unit that has had a catalogue of patient break-outs.
John Claydon and John Slavin absconded "with external assistance" from Springfield Hospital in Tooting last night.
Claydon, 28, is one of two men awaiting trial over the knife killing of shop worker Ben Foster, 22, in Bath last April.
Slavin, 44, was charged with aggravated burglary this year and was remanded to the secure unit by Southwark crown court.
Police, including dog handlers and a helicopter team, have been hunting the two men, who fled at about 10.20pm.
They warned that the public should not approach them. A Met spokesman said: "If members of the public see either man they are not to approach them and dial 999 immediately."
The pair, both originally from Bristol, are the latest dangerous patients to flee the mental health facility.
In September 2004, paranoid schizophrenic John Barrett stabbed cyclist Dennis Finnegan to death in Richmond Park after escaping. Barrett was let out of the hospital for an hour of "ground leave" but absconded and stabbed the 50-year-old banker the next day.
Earlier that year another schizophrenic, Mark Ricketts, 39, who had been convicted of attempted murder after stabbing a stranger 20 times, escaped during a day trip from Broadmoor, spending six days on the run.
Then in 2006 convicted rapist Anthony Rowley and a 29-year-old fled on the day Home Office officials arrived to discuss the Barrett security lapse. They helped themselves to a set of keys. They were arrested in Edinburgh after catching a train from King's Cross.
Claydon has several scars, including ones on his top lip and forehead, and a gold tooth. Slavin, who is 6ft 3in, was wearing a black jumper, brown shoes and a beanie hat. He had a goatee beard, short, dark hair and tattoos on his left arm and hand.
A spokeswoman for the South West London and St George's Mental Health Trust said: "Two patients escaped from the Shaftesbury Clinic on the evening of 18 November.
"It appears that they escaped with external assistance. The matter was reported immediately to the police. An investigation is under way."
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