STABBING WITH KNIFE ADMITTED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28010, 3 July 1956, Page 16

STABBING WITH KNIFE ADMITTED

ELDERLY MAN CONVICTED AT ASHBURTON

Alleging that he had been “threatened with destruction” an elderly man admitted in the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court yesterday that he had attacked another man with a knife. Appearing before Mr E. A. Lee. S.M., Thomas Griffin, aged 73. pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting Robert Gordon Muckle. He was convicted and ordered to appear for sentence within twelve months if called upon to do so.

Senior-Sergeant C. H. King said that Griffin, who had been drinking in a hotel, had been given a lift in a truck driven by Muckle. For some reason he had stabbed the driver with a knife and Muckle had received cuts to the side of the head. Muckle also suffered a cut hand when he attempted to take the knife from Griffin.

Questioned by the police, Griffin had alleged that the driver of the truck had threatened to “do him in” and that he had defended himself with the knife, said Senior-Ser-geant King. He thought the cause of the trouble was drink.

In evidence. Griffin said that he had previously complained to the police of being assaulted by a man at the Turangi Home where was was a resident. In the truck Muckle had told him that he was a cousin of the man who had been accused of the alleged assault, and had said that Griffin should not have reported it to the police.

Muckle had then threatened him with destruction and had said that he knew a place where he could be destroyed and never found, said Griffin. had been almost in a state of insanity and had attacked Muckle with the knife.