A detained patient who escaped from a Toronto mental-health facility this week was found in the neighbouring city of Brampton, Ont., after being at large for three days, police said Friday.
Anthony Murdock, who has a history of sexual offences against strangers, was found around 2:30 a.m. on Friday and was set to appear in court later in the day, Toronto police said.
Authorities had said Mr. Murdock left the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health on Tuesday while on a staff-escorted pass on hospital grounds.
He became at least the third detained patient to disappear from CAMH in the past month.
The hospital recently announced an internal and external review of protocols around patient passes and privileges after acknowledging that the recent disappearances of detained patients had caused public concern.
Documents show Mr. Murdock has a long history of sexual offences against strangers: He was found not criminally responsible on a sexual-assault charge in 2002, and was also previously convicted on counts of forcible confinement and sexual assault.
According to documents from the Ontario Review Board – which conducts annual assessments of those found not criminally responsible – all of the offences involved unknown women and, in one case, at least one young girl.
“It appears that given the constellation of diagnoses that (Mr. Murdock) has, that he is predisposed to aggressive and disinhibited sexual behaviours,” the board wrote following his last review in December, 2018.
The board said Mr. Murdock has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and borderline intellectual functioning, and has a history of substance abuse. It deemed him a “significant risk to the public” at his last review and ordered him to live in CAMH’s forensic unit.
The assessment and ruling are similar to those handed down for two other detained CAMH patients who fled the facility earlier in July.
Zhebin Cong, found not criminally responsible for the 2014 death of his roommate, left the country on July 3 and remains at large.
Ahmed Sualim walked away from CAMH while on an accompanied pass last week, but was back in custody hours later. He had been found not criminally responsible on multiple charges stemming from a string of armed robberies in 2012.
Toronto Mayor John Tory said he had been in touch with the centre to offer help addressing the issues around the recent disappearances.
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