DRAMA OF 2 PRISONERS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3399, 28 July 1932, Page 3

DRAMA OF 2 PRISONERS

MAN PLEADS FOR HIS ATTACKER. KNEW HIM TO BE WRONGLY CONVICTED. An extraordinary drama of prison life has just been recounted before the Assize Court at Santes, in the Charente - Inferieure Department, Paris. At the end of the trial tears streamed down the cheeks of the jurymen. Early last month Jean Piciot, who lies under sentence of eight years' imprisonment for an offence at Givors Railway Station, was being shaved in the prison when another convict, Philibert Gaucher, turned upon him and wounded him several times with an awl. It was explained when Gaucher appeared for trial that he had been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in connection with the Givors affair, although he had always contended his innocence.

He had attacked Piciot because he claimed that the latter had remained silent when he might have established Gaucher's innocence.

Gaucher was in the dock when Piciot was brought in. The former declared, "I was convicted through Piciot's fault, for he knew that I was innocent. My condemnation caused my old mother to die from a broken heart. Since I loved my mother, I could not resist the temptation to try and kill Piciot when I saw him before me."

Piciot, from the witness-box made a moving appeal on behalf of the man ■who had tried to kill him. He swore that Gaucher was innocent of the Givors crime, and should be acquitted of the charge of attempted murder. His plea was heard, and a verdict of "Not guilty" returned. Meanwhile Piciot's statement is to lead to a further trial of the case which originally resulted in Gaucher's imprisonment.