ATTEMPTING MURDER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2303, 10 November 1914, Page 6

ATTEMPTING MURDER

CHARGE. AGAINST A YOUTH. (By Toleeraph —Press Association.) Timaru, November- 9. r A' youth of 17 named Birch, alias Palmer, who absconded from Biirnham on August 9, was to-day remanded .on a charge of attempting to murder Jas. O'Cowiell, a single man, aged 23, a dairy farmer at Clandeboye. The accused, an innocent-looking youth, had been in O'Connell's employ about a fortnight. On Sunday. morning, when I a neighbour calle'd at O'Connel's, lie found him in a dazed-condition,' milkI ing a cow, arid not knowing what he was doingf., He had a wound in the head n'liich ho did not know how he came by. In the house the neighbour found a pillow and bed saturated with blood. Birch was missing, tbgether with : his employer's horse, trap, overcoat, oheque book, watch, 'and chain, and looso cash. Information was sent to the police and by tho description of the horse and traj): Birch was arrested in Timaru within two hours. A doctor was fetched for O'Connell who sent him to the Timaru Hospital where an operation was found necessary, the back of the skull being cut through as if from a! blow from an axe. His condition is precarious, and his depositions were taken at 1 'a.m. He is still in a critical state. The accused, when before the Court, admitted absconding from Burnham. The Magistrate said that in such a serious case counsel must •be provided for the accused.