SEVERE BLOW ON HEAD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22744, 3 December 1935, Page 8

SEVERE BLOW ON HEAD

STRUCK WITH STEEL BAR A COWARDLY ATTACK (Per United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, December 2. . Brutally struck over the head with » heavy steel bar by an unknown assailant, John Nelson Brown, cycle mechanic, of 37 Shakespeare road, Waltham, was the victim of a cowardly assault in a workshop in Manchester street yesterday afternoon. Brown suffered concussion and had his scalp laid open for a distance of two inches, so that five stitches had to be inserted in the wound. ' Struck without warning- from behind. Brown had a narrow escape from death, or serious injury. It is considered that very little more weight behind the blow would have killed him. The man used both hands to wield the bar, which was 17| inches long and an inch in diameter. It had been carefully wrapped in brown paper, the folds being sealed with adhesive paper, s Both the assailant and an accomplice escaped after the attack. Apparently the assault was made: with the intention of rilling the till, but Brown was not laid unconscious by the blow, and fought with his assailant. Brown, a young, single man, is at present in the Christchurch Public Hospital, and Ins condition at mid-day to-day was stated to b« satisfactory. ■