A PRISONER has been charged with escaping police custody, forcing Tamworth Correctional Centre and Tamara Private Hospital into lockdown.
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James Creighton, 22, was being led from the front of the jail to a waiting escort vehicle on Friday morning when it's alleged he escaped from his guard and ran towards the hospital.
A corrective services officer fired a warning shot into the air, but Creighton continued to run out of the grounds onto Dean Street, police claim.
It's alleged Creighton was captured on Johnston Street a short distance from the facility and was brought back to the prison where all of the inmates were put into lockdown.
Staff at the nearby private hospital were also put into lockdown for their own safety until the alleged escapee could be located. Oxley Police District officers attended the jail and established a crime scene, before they charged Creighton with escaping lawful custody.
He was behind bars accused of stabbing his girlfriend, wounding his mother and a man in a West Tamworth argument.
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He faces charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm; causing grievous bodily harm with intent; reckless domestic violence-related grievous bodily harm; detaining a person with the intent to obtain an advantage; and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Magistrate Julie Soars ordered Creighton to stand trial on Wednesday in Tamworth Local Court.
The alleged stabbings took place at a Coorong Street home in West Tamworth on January 10.
Police allege an argument broke out about 10:30pm between Creighton and his girlfriend in the front yard of the property.
The accused allegedly then stabbed her in the abdomen.
Creighton's 40-year-old mother tried to intervene and received serious lacerations to her forearm, police claim. A 34-year-old man, who police claim also tried to stop the argument, was allegedly stabbed several times in the torso.
He will enter pleas to the assault charges in the district court in October, the trial is expected to be heard in the latter half of 2020.
Creighton appeared in Tamworth Local Court on Friday for the alleged escape.