A FIGHT WITH A MADMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3425, 2 April 1879, Page 3

A FIGHT WITH A MADMAN.

The Western lock-up, usually a very quiet place of late, was the scene of a desperate encounter on Tuesday night between a madman, who had just been brought in from Learmonth, and three members of the police force. The unfortunato madman, a powerfully-built fellow, who had been placed in a straightjacket at Learmonth by the united efforts of six men, when he was brought to the stationhouse was apparently quiet and harmless, and was released from his bonds when placed in the cell. About ten o'clock the lock-up keeper had occasion to go into the cell, and was, as it turned out, very fortunately accompanied by two others of the force. On the throe entering the cell the lunatic stood up against the wall with his hands above his head, and he then seemed more rational than he had been before his incarceration. He apologised to the police for the trouble ho had given them, and then looking earnestly at one of them, said to him : " Were you not working on W ilson's station ?" The constable answered in the negative, and in an instant, without the slightest warning, the fellow, with the ferocity of insanity, threw himself on the constable, who is a powerful man, and had him on the floor of the cell before the others could interfere. The maniac grasped tho constable by the throat, and so tenacious was his hold that the policeman stood a very fair chance of being strangled before his comrades could release him. For some minutes after a fearful struggle took place, the madman throwing the men about with wonderful violence, and when at last he was forced to leave go his hold of the constable he had pinned down, and the three got him on the iloor, ho raved and bit at his captors, all tho while uttering tho most frightful imprecations upon them. The door of the cell had all this time been open, and the combined efforts of the constables were required to prevent the madman breaking bos©. After « most; exhausting struggle, iho constables at last succeeded in getting a straight- jacket on him, and he became quiet again. — Ballarat Courier, March 13.