GLASGOW GANGSTERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22670, 6 March 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

GLASGOW GANGSTERS

CITY STREET BATTLE 1 MAN ARMED WITH AN AXE | Sixty days' hard labour was the sentence imposed at Glasgow recently oB a young gangster who, it was alleged, g was felled by a truncheon blow after he 'tj, had attempted to strike a constable s| with a hatchet during a gang fight. §j The man, Douglas Roy, of Bridgeton, jg stated to be a member of the '"FanDj || Boys" gang, was found guilty of having 1 caused a breach of the peace. |l Police evidence was that Roy had |s been concerned in a gang fight in Blue- || vale Street, Bridgeton, which lasted for - nearly an hour. Two large bricks, severe 1 broken. | bottles, a hatchet, a piece of iron ba r > [| and a wooden baton with a wrist strap and a metal head attached were P ri> |j duced in Court. They were stated to |jj have been picked up by the police after the fight. , || Constable. Thomas Joyce described j| how, after hearing a great commotion in Bluevale Street, he found a gan? || fight in progress. "As I moved toward the combatants," he went ou, || and another man came dashing toward me. Roy was waving a hatchet above || his head, and people scattered, scream* || ing, to get out of his way. As he tfreff m abreast of me ho aimed a blow at roe which missed, and I felled him with ro. v j|| truncheon." In evidence Roy declared he was #** || tacked by a crowd while walking a' o "'' jg; the street after visiting a cinema- ||| "Another crowd came along." he went g| on, "and as 1 hoard they were out for ffl vengeance 1 got a hatchet and went g| along with them." ~ « I Asked whether he was not afraid I killing someone with the axe, Roy *®* fl plied: "1 had no intention of using i g| I only took it to frighten people. || Roy's elder brother, who stated jS! he was a soldier just returned" fr®, ■ India, pleaded for leniency for J| brother. Bailie Victor Warren || marked: "It is a pity that the boys Bridgeton don't follow your exoinp || and become soldiers." Roy, it was stated, was well ' jg| to the police in the division, anil A® |f| timely warning not been receive< ■. tg them the fight might have deve' into a serious riot. "There might easily have be _ m murder done," declared the prosec |||