STABBED IN BACK

Evening Star, Issue 21820, 8 September 1934, Page 8

STABBED IN BACK

BUND PENSIONER ATTACKED IK HIS HOME r Hv [Per United Press Association.] >.,■ AUCKLAND, September 7. A blind pensioner was savagely attacked and stabbed twice in the back while at his home early this evening. His assailant, wiio is unknown, escaped and the victim of the assault was taken to the Auckland Hospital. His condition is serious. The blind man is Thomas Francis Coyne, who is sixty-two years of age and is married. Although seriously injured and bleeding freely from two deep knife wounds in the back, Mr Coyne was able to give a coherent account of the affair. He said he had gone to bed early, as was his usual custom, but he had occasion about 7.15 p.m. to go into the living room. He. heard a man whispering, but did not catch the words. Without warning, the unknown man stabbed Mr Coyne twice, the knife inflicting two severe gashes in his back on the left side. Leaving the injured man, the attacker fled. In spite of his wounds, Mr Coyne did not collapse immediately. _ He called out to his wife, who was in bed, that he had been stabbed, and mads his way back to the bedroom, where he fp’i to the floor in a semi-conscious condition. . .

Mrs Coyne roused relatives living next door and the ambulance was summoned.