CURIOUS STABBING CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1834, 29 December 1888, Page 3

CURIOUS STABBING CASE.

At the E.M. Court, Ashburton, yesterday, Bartholomew Kane wbs brought np oo remand charged with having unlawfully wounded one Peter Copelaad sn December 23rd. DrJ. M. Tweed, who examined Copeland on the 24th, said he had a wound on hie right hand and wrist extending from the knuckles to the joint of the wrist. There was a small wound oo tbe back of the man's head, two wounds on his right thigh, one a deep, punctured one, and the other an incised one, through the skin only. There were holes in the trousers corresponding to the wounds on the thigh. Copeland, a cook, Baid that on Sunday last he was on bis way to Wm, Monro's place, ia Green Lnne, Hampstead. It was between 11 and 12 at night. Kane caught him by the throat, and knocked him down. 'He was then stabbed in the band with a knife. Witness attributed the wound on his head to the blow he received when knocked down. Witness asked Kan? if he intended killing him, and Kane replied that he was going to do so. Witness crawled away outside the fence and crossed the road, and Btayed there for eome time. He did not know how long. He then went to Munro s and laid down in a tent at the back. He went to Kane s place because be mistook it for Munro's. As far as witness remembered he Vent through a gateway when he vent to Kane a place. He"" went round to the back of tbe house, j&eaning to go in, and it was when he was at the back of the house that he was knocked down. Ia cross-examination he denied that he went to Kane s for any improper purpose. He mistook it for Munro's, where he had leave to stay. He said he had offered, to settle the matter, as he thought it was a mistake. He would leave Ashburton, but he supposed the police would bring him back. —Bridget Ellen Cashmere, a neighbor of Kane's, said that on the night of the 23rd, between 11 and 12, Kane h»d a row with his wife. About twonty minutes afterwards witness and her husband heard Kane's voice. They heard Kane say to a man, "What brought you here I" The man replied that he wanted to get to Munro's place. . Kane said, " I'll have your life before you go away; what brought you-to my place?" The mac again said he wanted to get into Munro'a house, and thought he was in the place. The man also said, " Don't kill me, I have never said. anything wrong to you." Witness looked out the window in the porch toward Kane's place and saw a man lying down and' heard him moaning. Kane then went into his own house, leaving the man lying outside tbe gate, on the footpath.—Sergeant Fetton deposed to finding a pool of blood about 9 feet from Kane's hons». He traced the spots of blood through Kane's gate to Munro's tent. When he arrested Kane the latter said he knew nothing about it, adding " I never used the knife, I never saw the man, and lam quite innocent." The accused was committed for trial at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Cbristchurch. Bail was allowed, accused in his _ own recognizance of £IOO, and two sureties of £SO each.—Abridged from the Ashburton ■Guardian.