Denton Examiner, Audenshaw, Hooley Hill and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1877-03-03 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

MADMAN AT DENTON.  ATTEMPTING TO SPLIT A MAN'S HEAD WITH A POKER.  John Blackburn wee brought up on remand charged with wounding John Scholes by stri• king him on the head with a poker on the 24th Inst.  John Soholes said that he was a hatter, and lived with the prisoner at 16, Ilyde-road, Denton. On Saturday. about balf-pant six o'clock in the evening, witness and prisoner were in the back kitchen alone. Witue a was reciting a piece of poetry. Dr. Lees: Bow many were there present? Witness • Only UR two. .  The Clerk : What were you doing? Witness: Ho was sitting still, and I saw hirn take up the poker. Before lie took it up I said nothing to him. He had just before asked me if I could drink a glass of beer. He was not sober, aud was what you may call not drunk. I could not say whether I had finished the piece of poetry or not when he struck me, I was near the finish when I felt a powerful blow on the back of the head.  Mr. Coulthart : And had nothing passed between you 1 Witness: No, not the least, I didn't see his arm lifted. I then became insensible, and remained no until I found the doctor dressing the wound. There was no person in the house beside us, with the exception of the prisoner's wife, who was in the nest room. The door between the two rooms was open. The prisoner tooluthe poker from under the grate. When thelblow was struck I fell on the floor. Mr. Coulthart: Did your reciting poetry Irritate him in any way. Did he feel annoyed at it? .  Witness: Be did not complain to me, or object to it in any way. There was nothing !particular in the poetry to offend Lim. I had no quarr, I with him I had had a little bear but I was not drunk. Ile assaulted me ten weeks since, but at that time he did not use a weapon, and only struck me with his fist. I had on at that titue the bat and coat produced, which have marks of blood upon them. He always mid in the morning that we must take no notice of what he did at night. He is a regular madman when lie gets drink. Mr. Coulthart : Have you known him to strike anyone else without provocation I Witness: Only the week before last he had got the saw and was going to saw his wife's head off in the house. _ _  The Clerk: He seems to be a at subject for a lunatic asylum. ▪ croppexamining the witness, the prisoner s▪ tated that he and the complainant were both drunk in the house, and that they quarrelled, and pt struggling together, and the prosecutor received his wound by falling against the pantry door. He denied that he had used a poker, or Any other weapon. The witness eai.l he could not recollect anything of this, and he was sure that he was sitting Cu the chair at the time he was struck. The piece of poetry he was reciting was "The old Dutchman and his family," and had nothing in it with reference to the prisoner. . . _  Dr. T. A. Gallimore said that he was a surgeon, practising at Denten. On Sdturday evening between six and seven o'clock he was called in to attend the prosecutor, who he found sitting on a chair stunned. On examining him he found he was suffering from a contused wound on the left side of the batk of the head. The wound was an inch and a half deep in a slanting direction. It was an inch and a half wide, and the same is length. The poker produced, or any blunt instru. mint would have been like'y to cause the wound. Constable Garner said that he apprehended the prisoner on the night of the 24th instant, at his own house. In answer to the charge the prisoner replied, "1 will go with you; I have nothing to say against it." The prisoner was under the influence of drink at the time but seemed to know what be was about. After locing cat Coned in the usual way, the prisoner replied, '1 am innocent of the poker ; I struck at him when we were both down together." The prisoner was then committed to take his trial at the sessions, bail being allowed.  SUICIDE OF A DEN lON