Blood-drinking mental patient takes grandmother hostage after escaping swimming trip

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A dangerous blood-drinking mental patient dubbed 'The Vampire' sparked a 12-hour siege in a grandmother's house after escaping from carers during a swimming trip.

Mark Mawson, 40, was serving a life sentence for attempted murder when he ran away from staff at his medium security hospital and caught a taxi to the home of his former girlfriend's mother.

Armed police cleared nearby houses after he was spotting waving a weapon and had to disable him with a plastic bullet before storming the building.

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Mark Mawson brandishes a gun at police before they managed to arrest him in dramatic

Mawson was detained indefinitely in the 1990s after breaking into an elderly woman's home and almost battering her to death before drinking her blood.

It was in February this year that he escaped from staff at Chadwick Lodge Hospital in Milton Keynes who had taken him to a pool on the premises, which is reached by crossing a public road.

The facility has been repeatedly rocked by scandals involving violent offenders escaping while on shopping trips.

Basildon Crown Court heard yesterday that Mawson would undergo a mental health assessment at high security Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire before he is sentenced in August for the latest offences.

At a previous hearing, prosecutor Lynn Remi said: 'He entered the address of Jackie Patterson, an ex-partner's mother.

'Police attended and they feared for their safety because they believed he was in possession of a gun. One of the officers had to leave the property and was crying and had to be sick.

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Armed police prepare to arrest Mawson

'Eventually, police gained access to the property and overcame the defendant.'

It was in 1992 that Mawson broke into the north London home of 62-year-old Alison Da Costa.

After launching a brutal attack he drank blood from her gaping head wounds.

He was detained indefinitely and is said to have had a relationship with former nurse Beverly Allitt while at the high security unit at Rampton, Nottinghamshire.

Allitt, known as the Angel of Death, is Britain's worst lone female serious killer who was given 13 life sentences in 1993 for killing four babies and attacking nine others at Grantham Hospital in Lincolshire.

In April last year, Mawson was arrested following a siege at a secure unit in North Benfleet, Essex. He was subsequently moved to Chadwick Lodge where, it emerged, he was regularly escorted to the pool.

On the fourth occasion, on February 9, he escaped and caught a taxi to the home of Mrs Patterson, 56, in Chadwell-St-Mary, Essex.

More than 40 officers, armed police and dog teams surrounded the ground floor flat after he was spotted waving what a handgun that turned out to be two pens taped to a vacuum cleaner nozzle.

Trained negotiators tried to coax him out throughout the night as he smashed windows and threw furniture into the front garden.

Miss Patterson walked out at 10.30am the following day and shortly before 1pm police downed Mawson with a round from a baton gun.

Several stun grenades were thrown into the flat before he was bundled out and led away.

In court yesterday, Mawson admitted escaping from Chadwick Lodge, possessing an imitation firearm with intent to resist arrest, and damaging property.

He denied a charge of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence. The charge will lie on file.

Chadwick Lodge yesterday said Mawson had been having swimming therapy to treat a back problem and that risk-assessments suggested 'no indications the patient was an absconding risk'.

A spokesman added: 'Unfortunately, he did on this occasion choose to abscond.

'We have made significant changes to our procedures but the most import factor is that patients are not allowed out of the hospital who present immediate risk to the public.'

 

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