Phillip John Smith checking out at Auckland airport on 6 Nov

Escaped murderer and serial child abuser Phillip John Smith has been arrested and detained in Brazil.

Smith was arrested by Brazil Federal Police just after he was recognised by someone at a hostel in Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro.

Smith checked into the Cidade Maravilhosa youth hostel yesterday morning where he shared a room with three others…source

Smith escaped from a NZ prison and used a passport obtained in his birth name Phillip Traynor to flee to Brazil. His escape was funded using thousands of dollars he earned running a business from prison. Smith even held a valid driving license with his prison address on it, suggesting that he was allowed of out prison and was driving regularly on public roads.

While incarcerated in New Zealand he studied for a university degree and became a 80% shareholder in WSE Marketing Ltd in 2008, banking thousands of dollars. source.  He absconded whilst on a visit to a mysterious un-named sponsor, no details have been given about who that was or why Smith was allowed to be out of prison.

Yet despite obvious multiple cock-ups Prime Minister Key has backed an “efficient corrections department”

At a press conference this morning, Mr Key said the Corrections Department had been “for the most part extremely well-run and highly efficient” in his time as Prime Minister.

He said the department would be reviewing Phillip John Smith’s escape while on temporary release, and taking advice on whether a wider inquiry would be launched…

Smith’s victims, some of whom emigrated to Australia after his sentencing, will be very relieved to hear that he’s back behind bars again.

The NZ criminal justice system failed to prevent Smith from stalking, harassing and abusing them. It failed to protect vulnerable children and failed the father who was stabbed trying to protect his son when Smith crept into his bedroom one dark night.

It failed them again when it allowed Smith to run a business from behind bars. It failed again when it issued him a passport in his birth name. It failed miserably when he escaped and boarded a plane to Chile. Their Prime Minister failed them when he turned the escape into a joke (Murder, child abuse no laughing matter Mr Key)

Please New Zealand, for the sake of his victims, let Smith serve his time in a Brazilian jail. They’ll probably make a better job of keeping him there and punishing him for his crimes. They take crime seriously in Brazil.

Phillip John Smith faces two months in prison condemned by the UN: http://t.co/EdDu8y0nvS pic.twitter.com/NyL1f6Cvo2

— Stuff.co.nz News (@NZStuff) November 12, 2014

Also in NZ news today

• Strangler of a schoolgirl Jade Bayliss appeals his murder conviction
• The jury retires in the case of the ambulance paramedic accused of video-ing indecent assaults on his patients while en-route to hospital
• Ratepayer funded private cops are being considered as a solution to spiralling anti-social behaviour in central Hamilton