COLLAPSE IN CELL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 259, 23 January 1928, Page 1

COLLAPSE IN CELL

Death Follows Arrest WOMAN STRUCK WITH IRON BAR A DRAMATIC turn to a charge of brutally assaulting a woman at Devonport on Saturday evening occurred when the alleged assailant, John Costello, a tailor aged 40, collapsed in a police cell and died yesterday in the Auckland Hospital.

TT is believed the assault was prompted by jealousy. The victim, a married woman, had visited the city during Saturday evening and had made an appointment to meet an aged man. Costello, it is understood, got to hear of the meeting and remonstrated with the woman. An altercation followed near the corner of Lake and Albert Roads at about TO p.m. It is alleged that Costello then drew an iron bar from beneath his coat and struck the woman. Two blows fell on her head and a third caught her across the bridge of the nose. The assailant then decamped. The woman’s head was covered in blood and it was feared her skull was fractured. The victim was attended

by. Dr. C. Rout, of Devonport, who stitched two deep scalp wounds. Calling at Costello’s home, the police found him in bed. He went? quietly to the city lock-up and was confined in a cell shortly after midnight. At 7 a.m. yesterday he was examined by a doctor, who found him in a no» mal condition. Three hours later he was again examined and his removal to the hospital was ordered. Costello died soon after admission. An inquest was opened this morning before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M. After formal evidence of identification had been given by the constable who arrested the deceased, the inquiry was adjourned sine die.