THIS WEEK IN 1990: Armed hold-ups make a busy night for Portsmouth police

Book shop assistant Michael Horne was cut on the chin as Academy Books was held up by a man wielding a knife

Adrian Griffin, 56, of St Ronan’s Avenue, suffered a suspected punctured lung in an attack at the Palmerston Road shopping precinct.

But he managed to walk nearly two miles home before raising the alarm at 10:40pm, triggering a hunt for his attacker, who police said looked ‘like a tramp’.

In a separate incident, detectives also began searching for an armed robber who threatened a book shop assistant with a sharp bladed weapon before escaping with cash from the till.

A Southsea CID spokesman said Mr Griffin was ‘in a stable condition and out of danger,’ at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham.

Detectives hoped to interview Mr Griffin the next day. They believed he was stabbed near the rear entrance to Knight and Lee, Stanley Street.

In the other incident, an armed robber struck at Academy Books, a second-hand book shop at Marmion Road.

He took £50 from the till as he held a knife to the face of 44-year-old Michael Horne, pictured, who was cut on the chin by the robber.