Honolulu police followed up yesterday on sightings of an accused child molester who escaped Thursday from the State Hospital.

But 30-year-old David True Seal remained at large last night.

Dr. William Sheehan, acting chief of the Adult Mental Health Division, said the hospital is halfway through construction of a new $1 million-plus project that will completely surround two units for higher-risk patients.

There have been seven escapes so far this year, Sheehan said. The other six were recaptured.

Police said Seal was being supervised in the recreation area of the hospital when he scaled a 14-foot mesh security fence and fled the hospital at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

“;We are immediately reviewing the policies and procedures that should have been in effect and were in effect, any breakdown, any improvement, and we're going to fix it,”; Sheehan said.

Seal was committed to the State Hospital in 2002 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity for the kidnapping and sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in Lahaina in 2001.

Seal, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes, was wearing a black-and-white, long-sleeved flannel shirt and faded denim pants.

Police said anyone who sees Seal to call police and not to approach him.