GIRL’S ORDEAL

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1932, Page 2

GIRL’S ORDEAL

KNOCKED OFF BICYCLE. POLICE MAKE ARREST. AUCKLAND, September 12. .A European girl aged 18 was brutally assaulted on Pukekohe West Road at 11 o’clock on Saturday night when cycling home from Pukekohe. As a result a half-caste Maori, aged 26, war arrested by .Sergeant J. T. Cowan and Constable 0. W. Powell about. 6 p.m. to-day, and will appear in the Pukekohe Magistrate’s Court to-morrow. The girl, who is in domestic service at the residence of a, ; farmer at Pukekohe West, three milss : -from Pukekohe, had been to the, pictures and was accompanied' part of the way home by a young man who had to leave her in order to catch the last bus to his home. When sihe was just beyond the borough .boundary, labout two miles from town, she was overtaken by another person on a bicycle who struck her a blow. She increased her speed in an attempt to outpace her attacker to the nleiarest house, about a quarter of a mile away. ’ However, she was struck again,, this time being knocked from her cycle. She was dragged to the side df the road. Grappling fiercely with her (assailant, she managed to free herself as a car arrived from the direction of Pukekohe. She stepped into the light of the headlights and the car stopped, In it were Messrs Steenson brothers, of Pukekohe West. The girl was taken to her home. She was suffering from minor cuts and abrasions received in the souffle.. The police went to a Maori whare at the hack of a farm at Puir.i, about five miles from the soot where the assault took place and arrested >a half-caste who lives by himself.