CRIMINAL AND DETECTIVE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3782, 11 January 1908, Page 3

CRIMINAL AND DETECTIVE.

A Sanguinary Struggle. New Plymouth, January 8. At New Plymouth on Wednesday night a man named Stewart, who had just served a term of imprisonment for false pretences, walked into Detective Boddam’s office at the police station and, practically without warning, threatened to knife him. The detective, who is a well setup man, started up and, after a hard set-to, in which Stewart was knocked down four times, the detective succeeded in handcuffing him. There was no one about at the time to render assistance. The man has an imaginary grievance against the police.

According to the New Plymouth News, Stewart walked into Boddam’s offiice and said—“ Which of you— —’s,” has been putting my pot on with Hickman Russell ?” And without waiting for an answer to his question, he strode up and took hold of the detectives shoulder, threatening, “You—” “ I’ll Knife You.”—-Boddam jumped up, and, being taken by surprise, was for a while at loss, and then followed a struggle for life. Four rounds were fought, in a little room that was half-filled with chairs and the table. Four times the intruder went down. Four times he came back again for more. The pace was terrible. There was no quarter, no thought of it. This man was no novice in the art of attack and self-defence. “It was the hottest five minutes I’ve had since I joined the New Zealand Police,” said the detective. But science told the tale. Despite the throbbing pain of an injury to his thumb in the conflict, he bore his man down, seized the handcuffs, aud firmly fastened his assailant’s hands, thus ending the fight. The’ floor bore traces of the fray. Bloodstains were here and there on the floor, furniture and papers were all in a litter.