A man who claims to be suicidal claimed that he snatched a woman's purse over the weekend so he could be "put back behind bars".

In Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, Junior Ming, 41, told Senior Acting Magistrate Carlisle Greaves that he had been released from St. Brendan's on June 11, two days before he stole the woman's purse from the porch of a Front Street restaurant.

Ming admitted that he snatched the purse, which contained $250 in cash and items, from an empty table nearby to where the complainant was sitting and then ran around the corner to Hamilton Police Station where he gave himself up. The purse was returned without anything missing.

"Before they released me from St. Brendan's, they gave me two containers of pills; one of green ones and one of white pills and I was told to take one of each every night. But on the first night I felt funny and voices told me to take both containers at once," Ming said.

Ming told the court he then went to the Hamilton Police Station where he told the officers he had overdosed. He was rushed to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where his stomach was pumped and he was then released.

Feeling ill again, Ming said he went back to the Hamilton Station on Saturday and was told to return to hospital. According to Ming, he was told that he would have to wait until Tuesday before he could be admitted to the Mental Health Wing there.

"That's why I went to the disco and took the purse and gave it in at the Police Station," Ming told Mr. Greaves. "Because I was suicidal. I wanted to be put back behind bars."

Mr. Greaves said that he was frustrated with absence of a probation officer in Magistrates' Court yesterday to help with the case. He remanded Ming into custody where he will await a mental health assessment.