A psychiatric patient has absconded from a troubled Sydney mental hospital while on “approved leave”, just days after two other escapees allegedly killed three people in separate incidents.
NSW Police on Sunday released an image of Madan Pandey, 25, who leave Cumberland Hospital at about 9.30am on Saturday and did not return, and could not be contacted.
Police described Mr Pandey as being of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean appearance, with short black hair and full beard and moustache, and he was last seen wearing a black T-shirt and black shorts.
He is known to frequent the Merrylands area, and police and family have concerns for his welfare.
Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said Pandey was on leave as part of his recovery process “following an assessment by a senior psychiatrist”.
Western Sydney Local Health District said in a statement it “notified police when a patient did not return to Cumberland Hospital”.
“The patient was taking approved leave from the hospital and did not return at the planned time,” the spokesperson said.
Another Cumberland Hospital escapee, involuntary patient Setefano Mooniai Leaaetoa, 25, allegedly murdered one man and injured another man and woman in a knife attack in Merrylands on Tuesday, and had been on the run for 10 days when he allegedly carried out the attack.
About a week before that a third patient, Luke Peter Francis, 31, allegedly threatened a nurse at the same hospital, stole her access card to escape from a locked ward before stealing a car at Hurstville last Sunday and crashing it into another vehicle at Camden following a police pursuit, leaving two women, 60 and 84, dead.
He had been released from prison on parole days earlier.
Patients are about three times more likely to abscond from Cumberland Hospital than any other mental health facility in NSW, with one escape every 1,333 days compared to the average 4,383 days.
Header image: Madan Pandey (NSW Police).
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