TRAIL OF BLOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1936, Page 11

TRAIL OF BLOOD.

MAN WOUNDED BY BOTTLE. WANDERED THROUGH STREETS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. With his clothing saturated in blood and with blood oozing from his shoes, a young man staggered up to a taxi driver in Boulcott Street, Wellington, in the early hours of this mornuig and demanded to be driven to Ilia home. His condition was such that the taxi driver refused to let him enter the vehicle. Telling the driver to say nothing about tho occurrence, the injured man disappeared, leaving a trail of bloodstained footsteps behind him. Later, at 1.45 a.m., William Cox, taxi driver, reported to a constable whom he met on the corner of John and Riddiford Streets that he had seen a man lying on tho footpath in Adelaide Road close to Hall Street. In the meantime the Taranaki Street police had been Investigating the trail of bloodstained footsteps, and, having traced them for a considerable distance, handed the inquiry over to the Mount Cook police. On investigating Cox's report, a constable found James McLennan Duffy, of 6, Liverpool Street, Miramar, lying in a pool of blood, nfter having apparently' walked about three miles before losing consciousness. He was able to stand up, but immediately collapsed and was taken in a taxi to hospital. Inquiries revealed that in the Vicinity of Boulcott Street or the Terrace Duffy fell somewhere near mer's Steps and broke a bottle in his hip pocket. He received a deep wound 2in long, which bled freely. He had already lost a considerable amount of blood when he approached the taxi driver in Boulcott" Street. At the hospital three stitches were inserted in the wound, but afterwards he was allowed to go home.