ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1913, Page 9

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

OTAHUHU CASE (BY *E!,EGIIAI'B[~rRE9B ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, 7th February. Charles John Henry Mahon appeared at the Police Court this morning on charges that at Otahuhu on Saturday he attempted to commit suicide by taking lysol, and that he assaulted his wife, Eva Ellen Mahon. Mi*. Singer, who appeared for Mahon, entered a plea of guilty. ■Senior-Sergeant Mackmmm said that the accused and his wife were living at, Otahuhu, and during the ni^ht of Friday Mahon left his room and went out of' the house. His wife at that time went out of his bedroom also, and went into another room. When Mahon came back he found that his wifo had shifted. He went and asked'her to go back to the bedroom. She refused, and he went away, but an hour or two afterwards he went into tho room where she was and hit her on the head with Bonie blunt instrument. The wife could not say what she was hit with, but the man Btated afterwards that |t -was a tomahawk. It must have been the back of the tomahawk if that weapon were used, because the injuries inflicted on the woman were not serious. .They were, in fact, very mild. Mahon then went to the kitchen and took some lysol, and went into a paddock, where he was found in an unconscious state later in the morning. Mahon was a man who bore a very high character, but there had for a very long time been f fiction between him and 1 Ins wife. Some time before this she had left home and been away for some time, but had returned home a week prior to the assault.' Mfi Singer said that it was not desired to go into' sordid details, but for many years the man had put up with conduct on ' the part of Iris wife that not ohe man in a thousand would stand. Dr. Macdonald, who was called in to attend Mrs. Mahon, said that her in> juries consisted of two small scalp wounds. Confronted with a tomahawk of heavy pattern, which Mahon Baid he had used, the doctor Btated that Mahon must have been very careful to have used that weapon and caused a wound bo' trifling, Mr. Erazer, S.M., said that the police had indicated that the ' trouble was largely of the wife's own. making, bu& no matter how badly a woman failed to fulfil her wifely dufcipn that could never justify an attempt on her life. • The Magistrate asl?od prisoner if lip would ITomifW not to repent tlic attempt aO suicide, and the promise Wh9" readily given. 'Mahon w&s not ( at first inclined, however, to give' ttp his work nt Ot.i« huhn and go to Hamilton^ where Ire would be under his brother's superintendence. Whpir it was pointed out to' him that plenty of work was obtainable for him at Hamilton, and that he must of % necessity stay away from where hi» wife was likely to be, he agreed, Prisoner was thereupon convicted- and discharged on the charge of attemptorl suicide. On the other charge lie wa* convicted and ordered to pay costs, and m^ lter , int ? h . is OWn •vecognisance of £100 and obtain surety of £100 »tliNb