SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2636, 22 September 1923, Page 3

SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

INSANE MAN’S DREADFUL DEED. Ashburton, Yesterday. A lonely farmstead a mile from Dromore, seven miles from Ashburton, was the scene of a tragedy at eight o’clock this morning, when a three months’ old child was killed by a large nail being driven into its head. The child’s uncle, Thomas Jamison, who is understood to be afflicted both mentally and physically, was arrested. Details gathered by the police indicate that the mother, Ellen Jane Jamison, left the child on a hed while she prepared its food. On returning after a few minutes, she saw the child bleeding and dying. She rushed out, and found her brother, George, in a field. George discovered Thomas in his own room, crying, and whining, and he locked him in a loose-box in the stable. A doctor arrived shortly before the child’s death and found a four-inch nail had been driven into the head, behind tiie ear, and also jabbed about the face with the nail. The arrested man is painfully afflicted. He is twisted as if with rheumatism, and speaks with difficulty. He was locked up in a padded cell.