ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1932, Page 4

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

JOHN GRAY’S ACTION. < SURPRISE FOR POLICE SERGEANT Yesterday shortly after mid-day, Sergt. King, on leaving his home, saw a man on the ground in the yard at | the rear of the Police Station, stretched out full length with a razor gash in his left arm between the wrist } and elbow, a pool of blood on the ground, and the wound bleeding profusely. The man was John Gray, an unfortunate derelict, aged about 52

years, one wln.-n, ine pu,we have had, considerable trouh-e with in the and who has been constantly before - •• tlie Court on minor charges, such as drunkenness and vagrancy. The man informed the Sergeant that he Inul not had any food for several days, and that the previous evening he had drunk a strong dose of dissolved washing soda, hut without it doing him any harm. II<; had resolved to do away with himself, an<j at the northern end of the town, upper Revell street, had gashed his arm with a razor with a view to ending his life. He had. then walked down to the Sergeant's hack yard, a distance of nearly three quarters of a mile, and had there laid down to die.' Medical attention was at once obtained, and Dr Wilson found it necessary to put three stictches in tlie A wound. The man was suffering from loss of blood, but it was not considered necessary to send him to th e hospital so, in view of his suicidal tendencies, he was locked up in a cell at the Police Station,

before the court. This morning before Mr A. El. Benjamin, J.P., jo hn William Gray appeared, charged with attempted suicide. On the application of Sergeant v-mg a remand wasgranted until next day to enable the Magistrate to deal with the charge. 1