PETERSFIELD, Saturday, July 11.
USING THE KNIFE.—Henry Stamways, aged 22, was brought up before Mr. Waddington, Mr. Lewis, and Capttain Sandeman, on Tuesday, at the Petty Sessions, charged with cutting and wounding John Wallstead, a stonemason, at Horndean, on the previous night, and was, upon the production of a medical certificate from Mr. Kirkman, surgeon, of Horndean, stating the prosecutor unable to attend, remanded till Monday. Consequent upon serious symptoms intervening, the prisoner was taken to the residence of the prosecutor at Lovedean, in the parish of Catherington, before Major Briggs, on Thursday, when the deposition of the injured man was taken in the presence of the prisoner and the several witnesses, and the prisoner committed for trial at the assizes charged with intent to do grievous bodily harm. The wound was of a very serious nature, the knife having entered the left nostril, severing the cartilage of the nose and penetrating the upper part of the throat to the depth of three inches and a half. It appears the parties named, with several others, had been (Coronation-day) enjoying themselves, some in the beautiful grounds of Leigh Park, and others at a cricket match in the neighbourhood, when about 11 o'clock they met together on their way homeward. The prisoner began by ill-using a little dog belonging to prosecutor, who told him that if he ill-used the dog he would ill-use him, upon which the prisoner made use of abusive language, and was pushed by prosecutor into the hedge, from which the prisoner, putting himself in a fighting attitude, struck the prosecutor with a long-bladed pocket-knife in the face. The unfortunate sufferer is lying in a very precarious state.
(See also 4-Jul-1868)