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Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 253, 25 October 1932, Page 7

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WOMAN'S RASH ACT.

TRIES TO PLUNGE PEN INTO THROAT.

SENT TO INEBRIATES' HOME. BREACH OF PROHIBITION ORDER. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. A sensational incident occurred in the Magistrate's Court this morning when Lynda Mabel Fearless, married, a welldressed woman of attractive appearance, aged 40, was dealt with by Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., on a charge of a breach of her prohibition order.

Immediately after the magistrate ordered the woman to be committed to .the Pakatoa Inebriates' Home for a year she grasped a pen and attempted to plunge it into her throat. Struggling violently with Sergeant Angland and Constable Watts, she was finally assisted from the Court shouting, "You wicked man!"

Sergeant Angland said accused was prohibited on April 18 last. Her overindulgence in liquor had caused her to become a voluntary boarder in a mental hospital for two months. Last week, after a heavy drinking bout in Auckland, she was overcome with depression, partly as the result of alcohol and remorse, and attempted to take her life. Apart from the craving for liquor, she was far from disreputable and was well connected.

Dr. E. T. Rogers expressed the opinion that accused was uncontrollable so far as liquor was concerned. He had to order her to the Waikato Hospital.

, Eeginald L. Pearless, husband of the accused, who is on bail in connection with the Arnold assault case, and will appear in Auckland on Thursday, said he could only look after his wife when he was home, which was rarely.

When the magistrate intimated that he'was considering sending the woman to the Inebriates' Home she exclaimed, "I think you are wrong, and you know it. Must you report this in the papers?"

Mr. Wilson replied tha-t he reported nothing. All this trouble, he said, arose through the woman's over-indulgence in liquor. The magistrate added: "She cannot control herself., and for her own safety and peace and the happiness of her husband and children there must be some reformation."

The charge of attempted euicide at Hamilton last Wednesday and two other charges of breaches o'f her prohibition order were dismissed for want of prosecution.