Man on leave absconds from troubled hospital days after two escapees allegedly kill people

A psychiatric inpatient on “approved leave” has absconded from a Sydney hospital just three days after the state’s mental health minister initiated an urgent review into its security in response to the escape of two patients who allegedly killed people in separate incidents last week.

Madan Pandey, 25, was an inpatient at Cumberland Hospital when he absconded on Saturday morning.

“Western Sydney Local Health District 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 district said in a statement on Sunday evening.

Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said the planned leave “following an assessment by a senior psychiatrist” was part of Pandey’s recovery process.

“A formal review into the security protocols at Cumberland Hospital is under way. We will thoroughly investigate any process failures and if systematic failures of leadership or culture become clear, I will not hesitate to take action to resolve,” she said.

Police, who hold concerns for Pandey’s welfare, have begun investigating.

Setefano Mooniai Leaaetoa, 25, was arrested after an alleged rampage with a kitchen knife in Merrylands last Tuesday. One man died, and another man and a woman were severely wounded.

Leaaetoa was charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder. He had been an involuntary patient at Cumberland and escaped his escorts during a transfer to Westmead Hospital for medical care on February 7.

Another Cumberland patient, Luke Peter Francis, absconded from one of Cumberland’s locked wards by allegedly threatening a nurse and swiping her access card, before stealing a car in Hurstville on Sunday. The 31-year-old had been released from prison on parole days earlier.

Francis was allegedly driving the stolen Toyota Camry when it crashed into another car during a police pursuit. Two women, driver Lee Casuscelli, 60, and her passenger, Maureen Crosland, 84, died at the scene.

NSW Premier Chris Minns on Thursday said the growing pressure on the public mental health system needed to be addressed, including by implementing recommendations from the Bondi Junction stabbings inquest.

Minns signalled his concerns about the security failings, saying “there needs to be a full investigation into the circumstances relating to these patients”.

“Absconding is common,” said Nick Howson, a mental health clinical nurse consultant and the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association Cumberland branch delegate for mental health.

Cumberland staff would call local police “once a fortnight on average” about absconding patients who were a risk, most often to themselves, he said.

In February 2025, staff said extremely unwell involuntary patients were waiting days on Cumberland’s locked wards to see a specialist at the height of a psychiatrist workforce crisis.

Senior psychiatrists who resigned from Cumberland in 2025 have been replaced by fewer, more junior, part-time psychiatrists.

Jackson initiated an urgent review into Cumberland’s security protocols, and NSW Health will conduct a review of Leaaetoa’s care with the assistance of an external senior psychiatrist.

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