"TOLD ME TO GO AHEAD WITH IT"

NZ Truth, Issue 1214, 7 March 1929, Page 5

"TOLD ME TO GO AHEAD WITH IT"

SUCH was the effect of the alleged brutal attack on her, that -i some weeks afterwards, when she was placed in the witness-box to tell her story of that fateful; day, the girl' was still Very much- shaken. : • The young girl had difficulty in stemming the /low of tears that filled her .eyes, when she brought to mind that which had- shattered the peace of that afternoon and sent her girlish dreams' tumbling to the ground. : Roy Gordon Capel and William Gibson are the two seventeen-year-old youths charged with the alleged offence, and when they appeared in the lower court, Mr. McKean, S.M., committed them to the Supreme Court for trial after . hearing the evidence against them. When the girl went into the box,. . she answered the questions of , .Detective-sergeant Holmes in a quiet voice, . and her whole demeanor showed . plainly that the eventful afternoon's happenings were indelibly impressed on her ; memory. . She ; told the court that her Story of Ordeal eighteenth birthday fell oh the following day, but she is a well-built girl, and looks a year or two older. ■_':■: ■'■ She had gone to Herrie Bay beach early on the Sunday > afternoon in question, she said, and had picked out a quiet spot on a tree-covered bank in which to read her book. Apparently the girldid not know of the presence of the. : three youths until they stood in front of her, for she s a id that Capel, whom she- described as "the taller one," spoke' to her.' ; : '. His first words conveyed nothing of what was. in his mind, if her story is to be believed, for he merely ; asked a harmless question. "How far is it to Shelly. Beach baths?" are the words he opened, the. conversation with, according to ■ the girl. , She directed him. to the baths, ' and. then, she alleged, Capel became insulting.

YOUNG WOMAN'S ORDEAL

What ;Gaj^;lfe_M^ed.-'T<)' Have Said To Police FOR TRIAL ON GRAVE CHARGE

(From "N.Z. Truth V Special Auckland Representative.)

She is a remarkably pretty girl-— just eighteen, and as she sat, shaded by trees; on the green bank overlooking the bay, her head bent over a book lying m her lap, she harmonised perfectly with the peaceful surroundings. . But her solitude was not to remain long undisturbed, for, if her story is true, then the same trees Whose branches protected her from; the glare of the hot summer sun, harbored two young men at whose 'hands she suffered a terrifying ordeal.

"Are you by yourself?" he allegedly asked, and on receiving a reply m the affirmative, she stated, he tried to force his company on her, asking if he could stay with her. The girl said she told Capel she did .not want him to stay with her. ■'• Capel, however, was not going to take "No" for an answer, according to her. . He no longer attempted the more ■gentle method of approach, ' but' resorted to cave-man tactics, she declared. Raising her head and. looking the detective-sergeant m the face, the girl then unburdened herself of the rest of the story. "'I am staying with you,' Capel said, and then," she added, "he sat on the bank close to me. . . . When I struggled arid screamed he smacked me across the mouth. . . ." , She displayed some emotion as she spoke, and there was a sob m her voice as she went on to tell of the alleged brutal treatment. Gibson, she further alleged, then

came to her and treated her In a similar manner. Gibson; she infoi*med the Court, threatened to use force on her if she told what had; happened that afternoon, saying: "If : you tell anyone I ■vyill knock yoir down when next I see you." That concluded the girl's brief story, anci she left the witness-box somewhat flushed and tightly grasping. her small handkerchief. The woman to whom the girl fled m her hour of trouble, Ada ' Laura Gallagher, told the court that when she saw the«.girl on her property she was quite exhausted. Mrs. Gallagher said the girl was crying, and a youth who was near" her was trying to get her to. go away with him. "Oh, these boys have given me a dreadful time," cried the girl when she sobbed out her. story to Mrs. Gallagher. Mrs. Gallagher identified Capel as one of the youths who were on her

property on the .afternoon of the alleged offence. ;:;;■. „,.' Capel and another were hurrying 1 in the direction of the road, she said, and they stopped when they saw her and asked for a drink. . Then they asked for the loan of a clothes brush. The clothes worn by the two wer:e in a' dirty condition, and were covered with leaves, continued Mrs. Gallagher. Capel and the other boy then went to leave her property and she followed them for some distanc*. It was then she noticed the girl sit-, ting under, a tree and a third boy sit-, ting by her. He was trying to persuade the girl to leave with him. "If you are all friends you "had bet-, ter go away," she called to them,' and then she noticed that the. girl was . in toouble. j'r "The girl was in such an exhausted condition that I took her into the house and gave her a cup of tea," said Mrs. Gallagher. ' ' - ; ; The police called Charles- Vivian Gillam, who said he' had accompanied' Capel and Gibson to Herne Bay that afternoon. „ ■ . It was Capel. -who approached the Capers Denials srirl when she was sitting on the bank, he said, and he understood that heasked her the time. . He and Gibson walked off and left Capel with the girl, and when they returned he alleged that he saw Capel acting in an objectionable manner. He and Capel then walked away, leaving Gibson with the girl for about a quarter of an hour, he said. But Gillam would not swear to seeing the alleged offence. Medical evidence having 1 been heard, Detective Moon . £61 d the court that when he interviewed ' Capel and told him of the allegations made against him, he denied all knowledge of it, and stated that he had not been to Herne Bay that afternoon. "I don't know what you are talking, about," were the words the detective said Capel used. When be was told that he would be charged with a serious offence. Carfel told the detective to "Go ahead with it." . ■•■,..-■ Gibson also denied being at the bay that afternoon. The two accused were committed for trial at the Supreme Court.