VICIOUS ASSAULT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

VICIOUS ASSAULT.

OLD MAN'S NOSE BITTEN OFF. LUNATIC CAUSES STIR. Considerable sensation was caused in the village of Calderbaink, Scotland, when it was rumoured that a well-known resident of the neighbouring village of Gbapelhall named Patrick McStravick, formerly a railway surfaceman and now working at a colliery, had been brutally assaulted by an unknown man., who had. bitten ott his nose. Evidence that there was seme truth ii the story was provided _in the appearance of a motor lorry, carrying two men in charge of the pofl.ee, at the Calder•bank police station. The villagers turned out to a man to view the proceedings, but all they could see was the two men being taken into the office, the stranger being bound nand and foot. Both men were smeared with blood. It appears that as McStravick, who had recently undergone an operation for appendicitis, was proceeding along a _ line of railway to his job at WoodheH Colliery. He noticed that he was being followed by a strange young man who, when he came up to McStravick, at once attacked him. The older man was totally unprepered for this eudden lonslaught, but struggled to get free of his assailant, who appeared to be about 25 or 27 years of age, and. rather overpowering. Detained By Police. McStravick was completely overcome, and his cries attracted, the notice of two fellow workmen coming Tip the line, and they ran to hiis assistance. Meantime, hit; assailant made off towards the colliery, and there encountered some of the miners and officials. The stranger, who bore several blood stains, told the men at the pithead that . there had been an accident down the line, a:nd that he had been injured by an engine. Shortly thereafter one of the men who had gone to McStravick's assistance came on the scene and recognised the mam as McStravick's assailant. The latter was showing signs of dementia, and the colliery officials 'phoned for the police, who were soon upon the scene and had the stranger taken into custody. They also took the injured man on the same motor vehicle and hurried to the police office. McStravick's condition was such that it was deemed necessary to send him at once to hospital, and he was according conveyed to the Glasgow Roya>l Infirmary. Meantime, the police detained the young man, of whom they had now evidence showing that he had been McStravick's assaiilsjn-fc, and later haxi hiin medically examined. The result was that the doctors certified him insane, and he was removed to Hartwood Lunatic Asylum. The young man, who belongs to Rosehall. is said to have been showing signs of mental derangement for some days and had, in fact, been missing from his home. McStravick's injuries are believed to be serious, and his condition is rather critical.