A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 617, 30 December 1869, Page 1 (Supplement)

A DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.

' According to the Ovens Spectatar, a shocking crime was committed at the Twomile Creek, near Beech worth, on the night of the 7tli inst. A family named Crawford reside in the locality named. There ai*e several children, and Victoria Crawford, the second eldest, is said to be 13 years of age. On the night in question the children were all at home by themselves, and in bed, when a man came and knocked at the door, and asked for a dritik of water, which the eldest girl gave him. Shortly afterwards he returned, and asked the children to admit him, and on their refusal, threatened to break the door in with an axe, and to tomahawk them. They then admitted him, and he took the youngest child up in his arms and into the bush, threatening her and the others that he would murder them if they made a noise. Here, the child asserted, that the ruffian violated her several times, keeping her there for some hours, and then left. She says that she did not ,cry out as she was afraid he would murder her, but as soon as the man was gone she gave the alarm, and notice of the horrible offence was brought into Boech worth by two o'clock on the morning of the Bth. The children all described the man very accurately, but there was no other clue whatever. After patient inquiry the police thought they had fixed their man,- and mounted constable Strachan was despatched on Saturday to Mr Johnson Quiu's station, near Myrtleford, where he was supposed to be at work. Constable Strachan came upon a man driving a team of bullocks, who exactly answered the description, and arrested him. At Mr Quin's request Strachun allowed his prisoner to drive the team to the homestead. When there tlie prisoner entered the barn fo the purpose, we think, of being

searched, and then suddenly lifting a trapd'ior over a race used to turn a wheel for chaff-cutting, dropped in, and shutting the door after him, disappeared. Before the constable could fullow him, or go round, the prisoner had got down the race and disappeared in the rushes and underwood beyond. Strachau immediately sent for help to head-quarters, when mountedconstable Hall was despatched to his assistance. Strachan, in the meantime, waited patiently for several hours, at length saw something move cautiously in the uncertain light of the moon, and stealthily following the tall figure for a,, time, until within reasonable distance, he made his rush, but the figure disappeared in the same theatrical manner as before,, just as if the ground had swallowed him.. While searching round the spot where he-: Uat saw his quarry, Strachan was suddenly rushed and taken by the throat; and then a struggle commenced, the prisoner fighting for escape, Strachan, without dreaming of using his revolver, determined to keep his man. Several times they were both down, and as the prisoner is a very powerful fellow, %hting perhaps for his neck, it was no child's play. In the very nick of time Constable Hall, hearing the sounds of the fight, came up, and the man- was speedily put beyond much more fighting and secured. dEEe was lodged in the lockup, and fully identified by each of the children, who picked him out of a number of other persons placed in the cell. Th»> man arrested is James Martin, a fellow over 6ft. in height, one of the most prominent of the El Dorado rioters, and who was subsequently imprisoned for obtaining goods under false pretences from Mr Johnson, of Sevastopol. He is, we believe, a native of Sydney.