“LIBERTY FOR LIFE”

Shannon News, 17 August 1926, Page 4

“LIBERTY FOR LIFE”

BLIND MAN RUNS AMOK. “I MEANT TO MURDER.” SYDNEY, July 26. The story of how a blind man, armed with a pocket knife, ran amok at Lidcombe State Hospital, iujuring three persons, was told to Mr. Shepherd,S,M., at the Parramatta Police Court yesterday afternoon. The blind man, William Horace Walpole Suckling, was an inmate of the hospital receiving attention for his eyes. He told the court that bad treatment from the hospital officials promoted the stabbing. Defendant was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on Nurse Nancy Clay. A similar charge was preferred against him in connection -with the wounding of Alexander Hardy. Dr. E. J. Brooks, resident medical officer at the hospital, stated that on July 2 last, he was called to ward 1, where he saw Nurse Clay with a stab wound in her neck, near the jugular vein. Hardy was also injured. He had a small w'ound ovtr his eyebrow. Traced By Voice. Seargeant Coleman , of Lidcombe, said that on the afternoon in question accompanied by Constable Jefferies, he visited the hospital and interviewed Suckling, who told him what had occurred. “But how did you find Nurse Clay to stab her?” queried the sergeant. Defendant: Oh, I traced her by her voice. Suckling then told the sergeant that he had been sorely tried, and must have lost his temper. “I’ve been kept in this institution too long. I asked to be removed to the surgical ward, and, when I was refused, I meant to do harm, and perhaps murder,” he maintained. “My Liberty For Life.” When the sergeant asked him if he had realised the seriousness of what he hud done, he said, “Yes, I am prepared to lose my liberty for life.” Nurse Nancy Clay said that she was attending a bed patient at the time of the assault. ' She felt the blow upon her neck, but was slow to realise the seriousness of it, and it was only when she saw blood streaming down Hardy’s face that she discovered that she ,too, was wounded. Alex. Hardy said that he. saw defendant stab the nurse, and, while attempting to take him out of the ward, he, too, was stabbed. Suckling, who said that he wished to reserve his defence, was committed for trial at the next Quarter Sessions. Bail was refused.