KNIFE OR NAILS?

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8358, 19 February 1913, Page 4

KNIFE OR NAILS?

CONFLICTING EVIDENCE ABO UA? WOMAN'S WOUNDS. ' SINGULAR STORY. LONDON, January 12, A strange story was revealed in a case at AingßUiU-on-inames, in wmcu a lauourer ‘named if imam Jennings was cnarged witn assaulting his who. , .Detective Baker said Uie accused’s wife oame to tno ponce station and said her husband hud tried, to out her throat with, a , knue, and i She showed several cuts on her throat, ono f which was bleeding. Witness shortly afterwards arrested the accused, and on the Way to the police station he said, "Wouldn't it ‘make you do it, to work every aay and when X take my money noma to find'her under the influence of drink f —no lire and no tea for me. I deny using a knife to Uer or trying to cut her throat." The certificate of the divisional surgeon (Dr Boots;, who examined the woman, was as follows: "This woman complained that her husband had attempted to cut her throat, but there are only slight marks on her throat, probably caused by nails.” Prisoner: Tho cuts or scratches were caused by herself. She stood in the middle of the room and scratched herself down the neck, and then said, ‘‘Now X will swear your life away." Mrs Jonnings, who failed to attend tho first hearing, was now present on subpoena. She said when her husband cams home he accused her of having been drinking, and then in a temper be swept everything off tho mantelpiece and smashed up all the crockery in the house. Then lie seized a table knife, and, snatching hold of her made three or four slashes at her throat with it, but she caught hold of his hands so that he could not do her serious injury. As it was he marked her in three or four places. A fortnight ago he stabbed her through the left hand with a knife, and three weeks ago he stuck a knife into her thigh. “I have had a life of misery with him,” she added. Tho clerk: Was it a blunt or a sharp knife? Complainant: I think it was a good job it was not sharp. , Prisoner: Didn’t the doctor tell yon the marks on your neck were nothing but scratches with your finger nails? Complainant: The doctor told me nothing. ~ .. . Detective Baker said after the divisional surgeon had examined the complainant’s neck tho prisoner was only charged with assault. Prisoner gave evidence on oath, ana declared that when he came home ana they had a few words, his wife stood in the middle of the room and deliberately clawed her neck, and pointing to the scratches said, “Now 1 will do for y °A number of previous convictions were proved against tbe pnsonor v.lvo sentenced to one month s hard ’‘ibuor. and Mrs Jennings was giimb ed a summons for a judicial separation