A HUMAN OSTRICH

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17438, 24 August 1928, Page 6

A HUMAN OSTRICH

KNIFE AND BRUSH IN STOMACH Stated to have a mania for swallowing open safety-pins, Richard Jones, 24, a well-built, smart-looking: man, who has twice been in the Life Guards, was sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour, at Preston Quarter Sessions, for stealing:, as baillie, a wristlet watch from a nurse at Preston Infirmary, and a £1 note from a patient there. Other offences at Southport and Caernarvon were taken into consideration.

Detective-Inspector Cookson stated that Jones was married to an actress who was touring in Germany. He obtained admission to hospitals by swallowing safety-'pins and other articles. On these occasions he gave himself out to be a Scotland Yard officer or a railway police officer. At the present time an X-ray examination had shown he had a tooth-brush a clasp knife, and a numbfer of open salfety pins in his intestines. He had had serious illnesses resulting from his swallowing tricks. Dr Plimbott, prison 'doctor, declared that Jones had told him that he had swallowed eight open safety-pins. He had had three serious operations since 1919 for removal of articles he had swallowed, the last being in May of this year. The bandage of the operation was fastened with a safety-pin when he was admitted to the infirmary on June 1, and he took the safety-pin from the bandage and swallowed it open. Witness could not certify the man as insane, but the time must come very soon when, in his own interests, he\ would have to be certified.