ATTACKED BY A PRISONER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 442, 24 November 1908, Page 2

ATTACKED BY A PRISONER.

Gaol Governor Stabbed in the Neck.

A prisoner named Joseph Norman, a Corsican by birth, who is serving a sentence of two years’ imprisonment at the Terrace Gaol, Wellington, for indecent assault, attacked Mr Armstrong, Governor of the gaol, whilst he was making a round of the prison, inflating a wound over an inch deep in the gaoler’s neck. It appears that Norman, a joiner by trade, was working at a bench in the carpenter’s workshop, when Mr Armstrong went in to give some instructions to the officer in charge of the work. When the Governor of the gaol was leaving the workshop, and had his back turned to the bench at which Norman was working, it is alleged that the prisoner, without the least warning or provocation, sprang at Mr Armstrong and struck him a blow in the neck with a chisel he had been using. Before anyone thoroughly realised what had happened, Norman bolted, but he was recaptured by a warder and another prisoner before be had gone very far. It was found that the chisel had penetrated the collar of Mr Armstrong’s coat and his starched collar, and entered his neck, about half an inch from the jugular vein. Dr. Gilmer was called in to attend Mr Armstrong, who had lost a considerable quantity of blood, and stitched the wound up. It is slated that Norman had been punished recently for assaulting another prisoner, and this may have been the cause of his attack on the * Governor of the gaol. Norman will be brought before the Court as soon as Mr Armstrong is sufficiently recovered to give evidence. On enquiry at the Terrace Gaol last evening, itwas ascertained that Mr Armstrong, who was in a very low condition on Saturday, was a little better.

It is understood that Norman will be charged with attempted murder, but the charge may be reduced.