ATTACKING A JUDGE IN COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 264, 30 December 1880, Page 4

ATTACKING A JUDGE IN COURT.

The Gofos contains a letter from Novgorod, describing a scene that took place in Court tbero on the sbh inst. The. case under examination was that of a convict, nnmed Taras PolejaeiT, charged wiih the murder of a fel)owprieoner. The accused was known to l>e a most violent man, and having uttered threats against the judicial authorities on his wcy to the Court, the officer in charge of the escort ordered him to be searched and deprived of his boots before being placed in the dock. Prom carelessness or haste the latter were not remoted, and Polejaefi" was allowed to enter the do<k wearing heavy hob-nailed convict thocn. The trial of a murderer had attracted a large body of spectator?, and the Court was crammed with people. In reply to the demand of the judge whether he intended to summon witnesses for bis defence, the prisoner, a ebort thick-set mBQ of 4<4i, replied •with a ]oud, firm voice, "I will not be tried here. My trial eball take place elsewhere; at Moscow or St. Petersburg." The judge, taking no notice of this, exclaimed, " Let the case proceed." Hardly bad the words been uttered when Taras Polejaeff stooped down, slipped cff one of his shoes, and hurled it at the judge's head, knocking the uniortunate functionary across the eyebrows and covering his face with blood. There was a general cry of horror on the part of the spectators, who, the next moment, were seized with a panic, fearing the desperado would burl his remaining shoe at them. Amid the hubbub the gendarmes rushed forward to seize the prisoner, who struggled violently, and gave vent to the most frightful curses. In the end he was overcome and manacled, and the judge having had his face bound up, and the female spectators being restored to sensibility, the case was formally conducted to a termination — an account of the affair being drawn up, and a summary tele graphed to the Minister of Justice. It is believed that the murderer will be tried by martial law for the attack on the judge.;