ATTEMPTED MURDER IN WELLINGTON.

Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7, 9 July 1888, Page 2

ATTEMPTED MURDER IN WELLINGTON.

? A MAN GAROTTED, ROBBED, AND NEARLY MURDERED. Last night a most extraordinary case of garotting and attempted murder was committed on the reclaimed land, almost immediately at the rear of the Opera House. The viotim of the crime is a young man named Frank Cousins, aged abont 27 years, and a bootmaker by trade, he having been until quite reoently in the employ of Mr. A. Riokman, late of Manners-street. The police are very silent as to the whole surroundings of the affair, and it therefore behoved us to obtain information from other Bouroes, and with this end in view a representative of the Evening Post interviewed the wounded man this morning at his mother's residence, Wordsworth-street. FRANK COUSINS' STATZHENT. Frank Cousins was lying in bed, and at first informed the reporter that he would rather say nothing of what had occurred, but after a time he became slightly more communicative, and in the preßenoe of his mother made a statement whioh substantially we give herewith : — Cousins said that he was returning home along the newly-reclaimed land behind Willis-street last night between 10 and 11 o'olook, and when at a point immediately at the rear of the Opera Houße he was seized from behind by two men, one of whom caught him tightly by his coat near the right shoulder-blade, which in the struggle was torn. At the same instant the second foot-pad put his band over Cousins' mouth, and by pressing Mb knee against the viotim's back bronghthim to the ground. To tear Cousins' black frock ooat open was but the work of an instant; and one of the robbers, without hesitation, and as if being fully aware in what pocket their intended booty was, put his hand into the man's inner breast pooket, from whioh he took a roll of bank notes to the amount of .£l2O. At the same time he felt a stinging sensation in his throat as if he had been cut with a sharp instrument. Cousins states that after this he lost oonsoiousneßß, and he knows nothing of what transpired until he found himself floating in the harbour. Glancing around he saw the coloured lights at the end of the wharf, and realisms: bis position and being an expert swimmer, he struok out and reached the breastwork, where he sank exhausted. Recolleoting that he had felt his throat being cut. Cousins put his hand to his nook and found that while but little blood exuded he had certainly received a wound. His immersion no doubt had had the effeot of aoting as an effeotive styptic. How he got home the man says he knows not, but at his mother's house he did arrive at about 1 o'clock in the morning, where he was at once placed in bed. " Show him my coat, mother," said young Cousins, and the garment was produced. It was an ordinary black frock coat apparently almost new. The baok of it just under the right collar showed a tear about nine inches in length aud six inches wide, and the inner right hand breast ppoket was also ripped up, a great deal of violenoe having evidently been employed. The ooat itself was saturated with water, and this being so, it is marvellous that the wearer was able to float in the water for even a very few minutes. THB CAUSE OF THE OUTRAGE. Cousins states that he wonld not be able to identify his assailants as the niffht was very dark and the " job " was so quickly done. He says he had more than .£IOO in his pooket at the time of the robbery, but he is not quite sure of the exact amount, as he had been paying some bills on Saturday and yesterday. He is of the opinion that the robbers mutt have Been him pay away some money and replace the balanoe in his inner coat pocket, as they " went " without hesitation for that particular pooket. Cousins, upon being questioned, said that he had not banked his money, but had kept it "in that box," pointing to an ordinary clothes trunk at the foot of his bed. MSB. COUBINB' STATEMENT. Mrs. Cousins, the mother of the injured man, informed the reporter that her son was unable to stand when he came borne, but on opening the front door he fell prone on the floor of the passage. Her eon, she said, was to have been married to-day to a Miss Murphy, who for some time past has been employed as barmaid at the Nag's Head Hotel, Cuba-street. DB, BAWSON'B OPINION. _ Dr. Rawson was seen by our representative later on, relative to the extent of the injuries sustained by Cousins. The dootor said that the wound is not at all dangerous, but of course the shook following upon the immersion in the harbour might possibly prove more serious. Such is the plain unvarnished account as given by the principal actor in this singularly strange story. Of courae the matter has been reported to the police, and its elucidation has been entrusted to Deteotive Cbrystal, who, it is to be hoped, will very Bpeedily be in a position to throw more light upon the subject.