A THIRD patient within 24 hours has absconded from Calderstones Hospital, it was revealed today.

The news came as bosses said the last two patients to escape did it to just to get their names in the papers.

The latest patient disappeared on Thursday but was back in the hospital's low-security Chestnut Drive wing in under an hour.

On Wednesday night, two patients from the medium-security West Drive unit escaped while they were being escorted on a walk around the grounds. They were returned inside 90 minutes.

Commenting on the first escape, Calderstones Director of Corporate Strategy Graham Jowett said: "It is the belief of this Trust that this incident is a direct result of unjustified and sustained adverse media coverage, which encouraged these clients to abscond to 'get their names in the paper."

He added that one of the patients, when interviewed by staff, had admitted that he was aware of and influenced by attention given in the media to another patient, Andrew Sutcliffe, who has been missing for five weeks.

Chief executive Russ Pearce said of the latest incident on Thursday: "A client from a flat on Chestnut Drive -- the rehabilitation unit -- which is not kept locked, decided to go for a walk across fields and came back to his flat with a member of staff within an hour.

" It is our belief that at no time was there any threat to the public."

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said today: "I have had a number of discussions with Russ Pearce about the latest cases and he is concerned that stories may have been read by inmates who then choose to abscond to get some notoriety.

"I do have some sympathy with this view but think the important thing now is to ensure that as much security as is necessary to stop people absconding is put in place so that those who need treatment are unable to escape."

Twelve people have now absconded from the unit in just over a year.