ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER

Southland Times, Issue 17934, 27 January 1917, Page 5

ALLEGED ATTEMPTED MURDER

(Per United Press Association.;!. AUCKLAND, January 26. A middle-aged man, named Thomas Edward Watts Skelton, was charged at the Police Court to-day with tlie attempted murder of his wife, Alice Mary Skelton, at Pallia, on January 14. The :ase was remanded till Wednesday. It is alleged that the accused had been drinking heavily, and quarrelled with his wife, expressing his intention of jutting her throat. He left the room, and in his absence Mrs Watts started to leave the house witli her six-year-old baby. As she was approaching the gate, accused was seen by a neighbour following her with an open razor. Before the accused could reach her the neighbour had shut tlie gate. The man, apparently under tlie Impression that the woman was in the neighbour’s house, went thither with an axe and a flat spear, making a lunge at the neighbour. On being evaded, the accused went 1j the front door, and smashed it with the axe. Justices of the Peace at Maungatoroto dismissed the charge of attempted murder and of assault on the neighbour: but the accused was re-arrested on another charge and brought to Auckland, where an attempted murder charge was included.