BRISBANE'S MOST WANTED
29th January 2002

On January 27th The Sunday Mail Newspaper in Brisbane reported that "twenty mentally ill 
and mostly violent offenders from Brisbane's John Oxley Hospital" (a part of the Wolston Park Psychiatric Complex) "have absconded in the last nine years and are still missing. Seventeen of the twenty absconded while on rehabilitation programs."

On January January 29th, Queensland Health gave police pictures of 15 mentally ill, violent 
offenders ho had absconded from John Oxley Hospital. 

Acting Health Minister, Robert Schwarten said on Friday, that he had ordered the 
department to adopt new procedures which meant photographs of escapees would be 
published. 

Before Friday 28th January, Queensland Health Officials had claimed that releasing 
photographs of these criminals was illegal. But after Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie 
intervened, Mr. Schwarten said that legal advice was that the photographs could be 
released. 

Mr. Schwarten said "anybody who recognises the offenders, should immediately 
call police." 

19 mentally ill offenders have absconded from the Wolston Park mental health centre at 
Wacol since 1993. 

Mr. Beattie said he made the decision to release the photos because the government had 
nothing to hide. 

"This is an unprecedented release of material" he said "We're going to show this is in an open way to show we have nothing to hide and this has been a problem across all governments." Mr. Beattie also said he was confident the new Mental Health Act to take 
affect from February 28th would eliminate problems with patients absconding from mental 
health institutions.

Mr. Schwarten met with Police Minister Tony Grady, Police Commissioner Bob Aitkinson and 
Queensland Health director-general Dr Rob Stable on Monday night (28th January) to begin 
rewriting procedures in relation to escapes. 

As part of the new changes, Mr. Schwarten said Queensland Health would automatically 
release a photo 

By 4pm on Tuesday (the day of release of photographs in The courier Mail) four of these 
people had been identified, captured by Police and were said to be "receiving treatment."

News Sources:
Dibben, Kay; "Where are they? 20 on the run from mental hospital" The Sunday Mail, Sunday January 27, 2002. Pages 1 and 4.
Jones, Chris & Franklin, Matthew 'Wanted: police reveal psych ward escapees." The Courier Mail, Tuesday January 29th, Page 1.

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Update 30th January 2002:
According to National Nine News in Brisbane at 6pm, 14 of the 15 reported Missing have now been FOUND. Aside from Claude who is in Italy all the others were located interstate. Funny that..

It only goes to show how important getting public assistance is.
Within 24 hours of publicly releasing the photos and names of these people to the Courier Mail - 14 of the total of 19 missing, have been found. All but five of these had gone interstate. 

Some of these men have been missing for NINE YEARS.
But they are found in less than 24 hours when agencies finally do the right thing instead of making excuses. 

Little wonder they were never found when nobody knew what they looked like. 
It makes you wonder why the authorities insisted on dragging their feet.
Time for more of the authorities to be accountable to us - the public.