JUDGE’S WARNING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21244, 27 January 1931, Page 10

JUDGE’S WARNING.

GLASGOW RAZOR SLASHERS. VICTIM’S DRAMATIC STORY.. There was another judicial declaration against razor-slashing and gangs in Glasgow High Court, when Lord Ormidale spoke very sternly to a young man, Peter Boyle, whom he sent to prison for 18 months for attacking another man with a razor “ I don’t know whether you and people like you,” his Lordship said, " are aware of the view taken of young blackguards who do not hesitate to use a knife when their nerves, as they say, get the better of them. That sort of thing has given a great deal of trouble; it has been the source of a: great deal of in-, timidation, so that • law-abiding people have come to be greatly alarmed about the conduct of small gangs of idlers. _ Lord Ormidale also pointed out to the accused that by the Act under which the Crown had placed the indictment, with the pains of law restricted, the prisoners life would have been in jeopardy,'and he might have had to suffer a capital sentence. “If you and others like you were not aware that you were playing with fire you had better take:it to heart now, his Lordship concluded. In returning a verdict of guilty, the jury expressed the view that the accused had acted under great provocation. Had if not been for that modification, Lord Ormidale said, Boyle would have bsen sent into penal servitude .for a very long assault on Chalmers was committed on Saturday evening, September-20„ in a pend in Castle street. The affair caused great excitement in the district, and a large crowd which gathered was hostile to Boyle, and demanded that he be arrested and charged ( with the assault. The principal witness was James Chalmers (26), 11 James Orr street, whose face bears a long deep scar under the left jaw.. On the judge’s > instructions Chalmers, while giving evidence, showed the scar to the jury. . Chalmers said he and Boyle were two of a crowd which, frequented a common pend at 145 Castle street. “ FACE LYING OPEN.” . On 'September 20 Chalmers was in a friend’s house at 145 Castle street when he heard singing in the pend. He left the house to join the crowd, which consisted of six or seven persons, including had not been there long when the accused brushed ■ against Mm, and. Chalmers pushed .him away rather violently. After staggering back Boyle again brushed against Chalmers, ~ and asked what the witness had meant by that. • ■- Boyle then turned on his heel, saying, “You wait a minute,” and went up the stairs. Three minutes later Chalmers wM standing facing the crowd with his back to the stairway, when he was attacked from behind. , “ I just felt my face lying open,” Chalmers said. “ There was no pain at all. Chalmers walked to the Royal Infirmary, where 15 stitches were put in the wound. , ~ .. . , Boyle,,in the witness box, said that when Chalmers joined the crowd in the pend he passed a remark which Boyle thought was addressed to him. Chalmers went over and struck witness a blow on the side of the head with an instrument which he had in * his hand. Witness declared that he was repeatedly struck by Chalmers, and at last he drew a razor which he had in his! pocket. 1 I was not responsible for- what took place, Boyle declared. “It was done, in selfdefence.” ■ ~ _ j Cross-examined, he said Chalmers excited him so much that his nerves got the better of him, and, being under the influence of drink, he did not realise what he was doing. He did not slash Chalmers while Chalmers was not looking. Lord last words to ths prisoner when passing sentence were: “It was a dastardly and cowardly way of protecting yourself.” '