‘Black Dog Strangler’ on run after escape from secure hospital

Members of the public have been warned not to approach Phillip Westwater, 44, pictured, who  fled St Nicholas Hospital, in Gosforth, at 10am yesterday  after asking to go to the toilet as he was being escorted from his ward to a restaurant in a separate building on the site.

Westwater was detained indef nitely under the Mental  Health Act following a pub fight in 1989 in which he left a drinker paralysed for life after slashing his throat with a shard of glass.

The following year he strangled fellow patient Derek Williams at Ashworth Hospital, Liverpool, with his dressing gown cord.

He admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, having become convinced his victim had turned into a black dog.

“Officers are making inquiries into this individual and any risks he may or may not pose,” a spokesman for Northumbria Police said. “In the meantime people are asked to contact police on the 999 emergency number if they see him and not to approach him.”

St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle is considered a medium-security unit for adults and young people. Westwater, from Newcastle, was previously a patient at high-security Rampton Hospital, where he married a nurse in 2008, and has also been been a patient at Broadmoor.

The police spokesman added: “At 10am on January 2, Mr Westwater was being escorted in the hospital when he asked to go to the toilets, from where he escaped.”

Westwater is described as white, 6ft and of slim build, with brown/grey hair.

He left his clothes in  the toilet so police have no description of what he is wearing.

Westwater will have undergone a risk assessment before he  was escorted by a member of staff, a Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said.

“Patients in receipt of hospital care routinely undertake periods of planned or escorted leave as part of their treatment plans, which are designed to help in their recovery.

“Before being granted leave, all patients are rigorously risk-assessed. In the rare event that a patient does go missing, we have agreed protocols in place with our  colleagues at Northumbria Police to ensure patients are returned to hospital as quickly as possible.”