'Black Dog Strangler' found

The missing patient patient Philip Whiteman has been located safely and is back in a secure ward at the St Nicholas Hospital, Jubilee Road, Gosforth, Northumbria Police said.

Officers received a call from a member of the public who spotted the 44-year-old in Newcastle after recognising a photo of him. Police would like to thank everyone for their assistance in locating him.

Northumbria Police's Superintendent Derek Scott told ITV Tyne Tees that Philip Whiteman, dubbed the 'Black Dog Strangler', was a "medium risk" missing person who was "insulin dependent".

Spt Scott added that there was no information he is a direct danger to the public.

The 'Black Dog Strangler' previously had the name Phillip Westwater but is now known as Philip Whiteman.

Phillip Westwater was being escorted from his ward to a restaurant in a separate building - but still on hospital grounds - when he went missing.

Police are understood to have contacted friends and family of the 'Black Dog Strangler' who live in the Tyneside area.

Convicted killer Phillip Westwater, who was dubbed the 'Black Dog Strangler', would have undergone a risk assessment before he was escorted by a member of staff, a Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said.

• Phillip Westwater, 44, was detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act in 1989 following a pub fight where he left a man paralysed for life after slashing him across the throat with a shard of glass.

• He later strangled a fellow patient at Ashworth Hospital, Liverpool, with his dressing gown cord after he became convinced that his victim was a black dog.
• The 'Black Dog Strangler' married a nurse while he was a patient at high-security Rampton Hospital in 2008.

• Westwater escaped from a secure hospital in Gosforth, Newcastle, at 10am this morning after asking to go to the toilet. He left his clothing in the toilet.