Police ‘know fairground assailants'

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 1

Police ‘know fairground assailants '

Detectives investigating the stabbing of two fairground men at the Addington Show Grounds yesterday say they know who the attackers were.

The men they seek are an Epitaph Rider and a member of an Invercargill motor-cycle gang, according to the officer in charge of the case, Detective Inspector P. S. Seaman. “They appear to have gone to ground,” he said. The fairground men suffered deep stomach wounds in the stabbing, which occurred soon after midnight.

Both underwent emergency surgery, and the condition of one of the men deteriorated slightly yesterday. The man, Douglas Jones, aged 42, was transferred from a ward to the intens-

ive care unit at Christchurch Hospital, where his condition last evening was described as serious. The other man, James Koti, aged 36, was reported to be in a satisfactory condition. The injured men had been drinking in a caravan with their assailants before an argument developed over some property, Mr Seaman said. One of the fairground men was punched in the face before the stabbings. The gang members ran off, leaving the injured men lying on the ground outside the caravan, and managed to elude a big police search. Detectives from Invercargill have been brought to Christchurch to help in the police inquiry, but no-one had been arrested by last evening.