Police in Papua New Guinea say the country’s overrun courts and prisons are behind mass breakouts from police custody.

Chief Superintendent Clement Dala made the comment after 13 detainees escaped on Tuesday in Simbu Province, including eight who were facing murder charges.

Dala said an auxiliary policeman who had the keys to a holding cell at Kundiawa Police Station is also on the run.

Police are investigating a claim by local media that he is the partner of a female escapee who was facing trial for murder.

Six police officers on duty at the time have been suspended for 21 days while investigations continue.

“The auxiliary officer is not a recognised police officer and should not have had the key, but it appears he was helping the sole police officer on cell duties,” said Dala, who is the acting assistant commissioner for three Highlands provinces.

Dala said it appeared the auxiliary officer wandered off for a meal and left the cell door open at the entrance to the police station.

“He may have played a role in assisting the escapees, but we are still trying to find out exactly what happened.”

‘Probably hiding somewhere’
“If we find it was deliberate then he will definitely be arrested. He is probably hiding somewhere nearby and we’ll get to him as soon as we can,” he said.

As of yesterday, none of the escapees had been caught. Police are relying on community leaders to encourage them to surrender.

But this could take a month or longer and police fear some could reoffend.

He said the police have previously been told not to use auxiliary officers in any official capacity as they were community liaison officers.

“This is a symptom of our severe staff shortages, but I have reissued an instruction banning them from frontline duties,” he said.

Dala said PNG’s courts and prisons were completely overrun, and this was the main reason detainees in police custody escape.

Up to 200 people on remand
He said on any given day there could be up to 200 people on remand in police cells under his command and many brought in weapons and drugs.

“We have different cells for different remandees, but if we are overcrowded we have to keep prisoners in the main corridor, especially those who have committed minor crimes,” he said.

Dala said some remand prisoners were being kept in police holding cells for more than a month.

He said the police had faced a lack of political will to deal with severe staff shortages, a lack of training across the force and outdated infrastructure.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

New Zealand today reported a drop by a third in the number of new community cases of covid-19 to 60 after a record high yesterday.

The Ministry of Health said 56 of today’s cases were in Auckland and four were in Waikato.

Yesterday the ministry reported 94 new community cases — the highest number since the pandemic began.

There were also two cases reported at the border today.

Authorities also reported that three positive covid-19 cases staying at an Auckland managed isolation facility allegedly escaped last night.

There were two separate escapes involving the three people who were staying at the Holiday Inn Auckland Airport managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facility in Māngere, South Auckland.

Two were caught five minutes later.

The other involved a woman with covid-19 who has since handed herself in to the police after fleeing quarantine in Auckland last night.

Police said she was being taken to a custody unit before appearing in Manukau District Court tomorrow on a charge of failing to comply with a health order.

She was allegedly on her way from hospital to a quarantine facility and had stopped to collect belongings from home, when she fled.

Twenty-two of today’s 60 cases are yet to be linked to earlier cases. There are 166 unlinked cases from the past 14 days.

43 people in hospital
There are 43 people in hospital, including five in intensive care.

The number of community cases connected to the current outbreak is now 2158 and there have now been 4854 cases in this country since the pandemic began.

In announcing today’s new covid-19 case numbers, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said infections were still expected to rise and daily numbers would bounce around.

He continued to encourage New Zealanders to get tested for the virus.

“Of the four new cases today in Waikato, two of those are close household contacts who were already in a quarantine facility and the other two were also known to have likely links to existing cases.”

The total number of cases in Waikato was now 56, 10 of whom have now recovered.

Dr Bloomfield again urged people in Waikato to get tested

“Yesterday, New Lynn’s Shadbolt Park was classified as a location of interest. It’s now been reclassified as an exposure event and has been taken down from the Ministry of Health website.

“Having looked further into the event, which was being managed by a PHU elsewhere in the country it is now being assessed as an exposure event with a small number of people who are contacts.

“They are all known, have all been contacted and are now isolating.”

42,809 vaccine doses given
There were 42,809 vaccine doses given yesterday — 10,392 first doses and 32,417 second doses.

He said health teams in Auckland had moved away from using suburbs of interest as part of their testing regime because the infections are widespread across the city.

Testing instead was going to be focused in areas where there was a higher test-positivity rate, where the risk of unidentified cases is considered potentially higher.

“People with symptoms and even if they are mild symptoms, even if you are vaccinated in New Lynn and the North Shore suburbs of Rosedale, Redvale and Bayswater please do go and get tested as soon as possible,” Dr Bloomfield said.

He said it was important to determine whether there were undetected cases in those communities.

Dr Bloomfield also said from Thursday healthcare employees working into quarantine and isolation facilities would be allowed to work in other healthcare facilities without the need for a 48-hour stand-down period and negative test requirement.

“This will allow greater flexibility in using that MIQ workforce and of others being able to supplement that workforce and reduce some of the real pressure that is under that workforce,” he said.

Third dose for some
He said information was going up on the Health Ministry’s website soon relating to the third dose of the Pzifer vaccine for immuno-compromised people.

It would include the inclusion criteria, including how this small group of people would be identified and when they would receive their third vaccination.

“You will not be able to book a third vaccine on the Book My Vaccine website … details will be up on the website later this afternoon,” he said.

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki has pleaded not guilty to breaching bail and lockdown rules governing mass gatherings.

It is Tamaki’s second court appearance in relation to mass gatherings.

He was granted bail by Judge Josephine Bouchier to appear before the Auckland District Court next year.

Police have also laid charges against four people in relation to organising and attending mass gatherings in the upper North Island on October 16.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A man with covid-19 who allegedly escaped an Auckland MIQ facility today has been charged with breaking lockdown rules and has been bailed to return to a managed quarantine facility.

The man was arrested this afternoon at an Ōtāhuhu address by police in full PPE gear after leaving the Novotel Ibis-Ellerslie without permission earlier today.

RNZ News understands that after the man tested positive for covid-19, he was firstly required to isolate at his home, but he left the residence at some point yesterday.

It is understood police were alerted and once he returned to the house, he was taken by police to the quarantine hotel and formally processed, and at some point after that he allegedly escaped from the Ellerslie hotel.

RNZ News also understands a friend of his was involved in picking him up and returning him to the house where he was arrested this afternoon.

The man has been charged under the Health Order with failing to comply with an order (covid-19) and has appeared in the Auckland District Court via a video link this afternoon.

A judge has bailed him to return to a managed quarantine facility.

The Ministry of Health has reported that the number of new community cases of covid-19 connected to the delta outbreak has dropped to 49 today.

There were also four new cases in managed isolation.

All of the new community cases are in Auckland.

Family “extremely cooperative”
Police said the man’s family have been “extremely cooperative”.

Superintendent Steve Kehoe said police were notified just after 10.30am that the man had escaped from the facility in Ellerslie.

MIQ said the person had “allegedly absconded in the early hours of the morning”.

Police later cordoned off an Ōtāhuhu address while they prepared to arrest him, Superintendent Kehoe said in a statement.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the alleged escaper had last been seen at the Ellerslie MIQ about 1am.

It was his understanding the person was located at their usual home address.

He said it was not known yet how the person escaped, how they got home, or how long they were there.

CCTV reviews
“We still don’t have all of the confirmed information,” he said.

He said CCTV reviews were happening.

“I do have information that suggests that there is some CCTV of someone hiding in a bush while a security guard walked past them.”

It was not clear if the area was single or double-fenced, he said.

“Most of the areas that people who are staying in that facility have access to are double fenced, so the exercise area has a 1.8m fence followed by a 2m fence.”

He said somebody deliberately putting others at risk was unacceptable.

“If there has been in any way a lapse in the system that has allowed them to do that then that is something that I’m concerned about and we will absolutely be looking at.

Extra risk concern
“A lot of work has gone into making these facilities as secure as possible. If someone has made it out – particularly from a quarantine facility, where we extra-staff quarantine facilities because we know there’s extra risk there – then of course I’m concerned about that,” he said.

The Novotel Ibis-Ellerslie Hotel was only recently converted from a managed isolation into a more heavily secured quarantine site, beginning operations at midday last Monday, August 27.

“Obviously they’ve been stood up at relatively short notice, but nonetheless it should not be the case that somebody is able to get out of that facility,” Hipkins said.

“Our expectation is that people should not be able to leave them until they’ve been cleared to leave them so I’ll be expecting MIQ to provide a very robust defence as to what’s happened here because it is not okay for people to be able to get out …. the security should be sufficient.”

Responding police were dressed in full PPE.

Police also liaised with the Ministry of Health to understand the man’s movements since he left MIQ and was found in Ōtāhuhu.

Officers are working on where the man will be taken and assured the community that every precaution was being taken.

A family member reported the man missing and the minister was informed 12 hours later.

Ardern, Hipkins knew before 1pm
Hipkins and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern were briefed about the escape before the 1pm covid-19 media briefing today but she did not raise it throughout the duration of the media conference.

A spokesperson for her office said they were advised before the update of an “unfolding situation” being led by police.

They say because it was a “live” event the prime minister would not talk about it while it was still under way.

Hipkins told reporters he was advised before this afternoon’s question time the man had been arrested by the police, but made no reference to the situation in Parliament.

In a statement, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said there were three questions that needed to be answered.

“Why it took 10 hours for police to be informed of the escape … at what time management at the MIQ facility knew or suspected this person had escaped … why the prime minister did not see fit to inform the public of the escape at today’s press conference.

“Police have confirmed the person escaped at 12.34am, but they were only told at 10.30am the next morning,” he said.

“The last thing we need is delta spreading further into the community through poor oversight of security at MIQ.”

Joint Head of MIQ Brigadier Rose King said the individual entered the facility yesterday evening.

“The fact that someone has absconded from one of our facilities is a disappointing and unacceptable breach.

“We are investigating how this happened and will make more information available as we gather the facts.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A group of 31 men on remand have escaped from a Papua New Guinea police station holding facility in Lae after taking the key from a guard who was fast asleep, reportedly drunk, police say.

Metropolitan Superintendent Chris Kunyanban said the officer guarding the facility – called the “watch house” – was suspended because he was allegedly under the influence of alcohol and had fallen off to sleep.

The 31 fled sometime between 1am and 6am on Wednesday morning.

“The cell guard was fast asleep after consuming alcohol with juvenile prisoners in the watch house. The detainees took the cell keys from his pocket, opened the cell gates and escaped,” Superintendent Kunyanban said.

He said the metropolitan police were alerted around 6.35am and managed to arrest four of the men on Seventh Street.

The other 27 were still at large.

Of the 31, 15 were facing charges relating to serious offences, six were charged with being in possession of dangerous drugs, and 10 for minor offences.

One facing murder charge
Kunyanban said of the four re-arrested, one was facing a murder charge while the other three had been charged with minor offences.

He called on the people, especially family members of the men, to assist the police in rearresting them.

He blamed the incident on the negligence of cell guards.

“The cell guard on duty has been suspended and investigation has commenced,” he said.

“The investigation will also look at the system in place, security protocols and standard operating procedures.”

There are more than 140 prisoners kept at the facility which should only be holding a maximum of 100 people.

Some have already been convicted and were awaiting their transfer to Buimo prison.

33 still at large
Meanwhile, police are yet to re-arrest the 33 who escaped from Buimo on August 14.

He said some of those on the run knew well how police conduct their operations. They avoid places where police frequent.

“It is becoming very hard. But we are relying on public assistance,” Kunyanban said.

Police suspect that some could have travelled to other provinces.

He warned people, especially family members, that harbouring criminals was an offence.

The Pacific Media Centre republishes The National articles with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Theresa Baranangko of New Dawn FM

Eighteen prisoners who have escaped from Bougainville’s Buka police station are still at large.

Police station Commander Kingsley Lua has called for the communities, chiefs, community leaders and church leaders in North Bougainville to take the lead in reporting the criminals who escaped from Buka police station three days ago.

According to Lua, most of the escapes are waiting court for serious cases such as murder, incest and drug consumption.

He said the 18 escapees managed to flee from the cell blocks by bending cell bars which had rusted over several years.

The escape happened in the early hours of Tuesday, January 2,  between 3am to 4am.

Lua said this incident occurred under the watch of two or three police officers who were on duty that night. However, they were out in front of the police station when the escape took place at the back of the building.

-Partners-

Lua said that when questioned, the other detainees admitted they were also not aware of the escape as they had been sleeping.

The police are still investigating and have called for the support of the general public to report immediately if they manage to see any suspects in hiding.

Bougainville is an Autonomous Region in Papua New Guinea.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz