ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21216, 23 December 1930, Page 6

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

DESPERATE ACT IN WATGHHQUSE. THREE WEEKS' IN HOSPITAL. (Peb United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, December 22. The story of the desperate act of a in the. custody of the police was told in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, when George-Frederick Murphy, aged 34, a labourer, was charged with attempting suicide. Sub-inspector Ward said Murphy was arrested on December 7 on a charge of theft. When taken to the watchhouse a razor blade was found in his pocket. It was . placed on the counter, and accused snatched it up and cut his throat rather badly. He was taken to hospital, and had only been discharged that day. Murphy, who had to be assisted into the dock, and could hardly speak, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called on within 12 months. On the charge of theft he was remanded until December 29. YOUNG MAN SENT TO PRISON. (Feb United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, December 22. Arthur Francis Munton, aged 20, a labourer, walked into the public hospital on Saturday night and informed the housO' surgeon that he was going to commit suicide. First he cut his wrist with a knife while the doctor’s back was turned, and when this was not successful he took* a drink from a bottle in the surgery marked “75 per cent, alcohol.’’ The stomach, pump and- an emetic brought him back to normal. Munton, an Australian, was charged in the Magistrate’s Court this morning with attempted suicide, and the magistrate (Mr E. D, Mosley), in sentencing the accused to six months* imprisonment with hard labour, said: “You have a had record. I am afraid, to use a colloquialism, you have been swinging the lead.”