ATTACK WITH AXE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1939, Page 6

ATTACK WITH AXE

WOMAN SERIOUSLY INJURED IN DARGAVILLE.

HUSBAND UNDER ARREST.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

DARGAVILLE, July 11

Violently attacked with an axe at her home in Te Kopuru, seven miles from Dargaville, this morning, a married woman received severe gashes on the head, which necessitated her immediate removal to the Northern Wairoa Hospital, Te Kopuru. The victim was Mrs Beryl Hazel Winters, aged 41. Her condition is regarded as fairly serious. She has five separate injuries on the scalp, four of which appear to have been inflicted with a sharp instrument. The police arrested the victim’s husband, Harold Winters, aged 52, on a charge of assault, causing actual bodily harm.

The actual time of the assault was about 10 o’clock, and Sergeant F. Culloty and Constable W. E. C. Bruce went to the locality and immediately arrested the husband. Mr and Mrs Winters occupy a house in Walker’s Terrace, Te Kopuru, and the attack was made just outside their house. It is alleged that the couple quarrelled, and that the husband struck his wife with an axe.

Whether anyone witnessed the assault is not known, but it is understood that Mr E. Warmington was the first to discover the affair and informed the police at Dargaville. He then notified neighbours and they proceeded to the house and took care of Mrs Winters till the arrival of the police, who arrested Winters at the gate leading to his house. The police recovered a blood-stained axe lying on the verandah, and they also recovered a heavy stick, which, it is alleged, was used in conjunction with the axe to inflict the injuries. There is a young family living at the home with their parents, but they did not witness the assault, as they were attending school. It is understood that the arrested man has not enjoyed good health of late.