Qld: Parents of escaped killer face court tomorrow

AAP General News (Australia)
02-16-2004
Qld: Parents of escaped killer face court tomorrow

The Melbourne-based parents of mentally-ill killer CLAUDE GABRIEL will face court tomorrow
on a charge of helping him flee Queensland.

JOHN and ALESSANDRA GABRIEL have pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court
to helping their son abscond from a Brisbane mental institution between November, 2001
and February, 2002.

They face a maximum six-month jail term or $1,200 fine if found guilty.

Brisbane magistrate JOAN WHITE last month adjourned the case against the pair until tomorrow.

CLAUDE GABRIEL, who has severe schizophrenia, was judged to be insane after killing
17-year-old JANAYA CLARKE on the Gold Coast in November, 1998.

He was committed to the John Oxley Memorial Hospital, a secure facility for the criminally
insane.

But the GABRIELS allegedly took their son from Brisbane in November 2001 to their home
in Melbourne, and later to Italy, after failed legal attempts to have him moved to Victoria.

CLAUDE GABRIEL was later arrested in New Zealand.

AAP RTV jhm/wjf/as/rt

KEYWORD: GABRIEL (BRISBANE)

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