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Convict in 'cigarette break out' 

An armed robber escaped from a secure psychiatric hospital in London during a cigarette break and robbed a shop at knife-point, a jury has heard.

John Slavin, 44, was eight months into a sentence at Springfield Hospital in Wandsworth, south-west London, for robbing a Gloucester Road bookshop.

But Southwark Crown Court heard that in March 2008 he escaped through a fence - and raided the bookshop a second time.

His mental illness meant he was not fit to make a plea, a judge said.

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