"ONLY LAUGHED AT ME"

NZ Truth, Issue 1262, 6 February 1930, Page 3

"ONLY LAUGHED AT ME"

NIGHT OF TERROR ALLEGED

Young GirFs Story of Terrible Ordeal In Lonely Whare

SAID SHE PLEADED WITHOUT AVAIL

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Christchurch Representative.) Sensational allegations of a nig-ht of terror spent m a lonely whare on the Mina Road, near the township of Cheviot, m North Canterbury, were made to the police by a young domestic servant, who declared that during the night she had to fight grimly against the unwelcome advances of two young men who paid an uninvited call to the hut where she lived.

SHE was alone at the time, her em-' ployers spending tlie night m their house' at Gore Bay, and according to her story the intruders ignored her pleadings to be left alone and her threats to inform the" police,\and allegedly attempted to criminally assault her. The young woman, Amelia Caroline Tyerman, is employed as a domestic by Walter John Burnett, a farmer, of Mina Road, Cheviot, and oh the night of the alleged ■■ assault, the Burnett family were away at the beach at Gore Bay. Miss Tyerman remained at home and slept the night m a whare m the orchard, situated about twenty yaids from the front gate and a similar distance from the house. • It was not until the 1 return of her employer the next morning 'that Misd Tyerman was able to recount the Incidents of her eventful night. Nerve-stricken and looking worn out from loss of sleep, she told her story to Burnett and Constable Poole, with the result that two . men, Alfred Saunders Webster, a. laborer, and . George Gilpin Pickens, a laborer, and formerly a jockey, have been sent for trial on a charge of attempting to commit a serious offence. When the two accused were charged before Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., at Cheviot, Miss Tyerman stated m evidence that she 1 usually slept m the hut by herself, and on the night m question she retired about 7.20, leaving the hut door open. ffirl's Allegations Some time between 9 and 10 p.m., she said, she was awakened by a voice calling out: "Are you there, Jack 7 " The- girl asked who was there, and a man's voice replied: "A friend." A man then came up to the door ot the hut and remarked: "Oh, you y are m .my old hut." She said she recognised the man as Alf. Webster. He stayed for about half an hour and then went away, returning shortly afterwards with another man, whom the girl did not know. "Webster HI; the light and asked me if I would go to a dance with him on the following night,," continued the girl. "Then they went out and Webater returned shortly after by himself. "He tried to kiss me," said Miss Tyerman, who went on to allege that Webster attempted to make improper advances. "I told him to get out otherwise J would ■■ inform my employer m the morning. After . a Jew minutes he went out. I was going to get up and go outside when Pickens came m tht-. hut. He only stayed a little while and left and Webster returned. "WebsterPsat down and I had to push him away. Then Pickens came back to the door of the huk and tried to' get Wsbster to leave. 'Come out of it,' he said to Webster, and soon after they left the place.^ . Tlie girl went on to say that when Webster returned the second time he •accused her of .impropriety with Pickens. "1 told him he could believe What tie liked as long as he got out of the place," the girl, added. .Kinally, she said, she persuaded him to leave the place. "A few hours later, about one o'clock m the morning, he returned and came stumbling into the hut, and with a curse he told me he was drunk," continued Miss Tyerman. "He said he wanted to sleep, but I told him he could not sleep there." Webster was aroused by the Bound of a passing car, and a few minutes later he went out and came back with two men, one of whom was Pickens. One of the men advised him to leave the place, said* the girl, but he would not «go, and he invited her to join him In a drink of wine. "I. refused and said, to "the two at the door: 'For God's sake take him away, but they only laughed and said they could not take him away against hia will." Her continued pleadings and threats were of no avail, and when, she told Webster that she would inform Mr. Burnett m the morning he merely laughed, with the remark that "he was not frightened of Jack." Called for Help. It wa"s a quarter to three m the morning when the girl finally retired, and though several times during her ordeal she called out as loudly as she could, hoping to attract* the attention of near-by neighbors, nobody came to her assistance. . It was not until 5.20 o'clock m the morning that Burnett, accompanied by -a neighbor named Bennett, returned to the farm. They met the girl tearful and very up-' set, walking down the drive towards the gate, and then she told them of her awful night, and how she had had to fight alone against two men who visited the hut. Webster, who was hot represented by counsel, had no questions to ask Miss Tyerman, and she was followed m. the box by Walter John Burnett, her employer. Burnett explained that he had been away "for three nights at Gore Bay, and on these occasions the girl was alone at the farm. On the morning of January 23 Webster called on him, he said, asking for the loan of a horse and dray. Burnett was unable to accede to the request, and he told Webster that there was no harvesting work for' him on the place. Burnett went on to_tell of his meeting with Miss Tyerman early the next morning, when she said she had had a terrible night and started to cry. Constable Poole: Did Webster have any reason to go back to your house that night after being told m the morning that there was no work for him? : — No, none whatever. Questioned by the accused, Burnett denied that he told Webster to come up that night and see about borrowing the horse .and dray. . Thomas Baxter Bennett, a farmer, living near Burnett's place oh the Mina RoacV corroborated the evidence of Burnett m regard to meeting the girl. "She was crying and told us that two men had visited the whare and hauled her about giving her an awful doing," said Bennett. . Bennett also alleged that at about 9 o'clock on the previous, evening , he saw Webster's trap and horse m front of Burnett's place.. He thought he heard a scream or a

squeal, but after listening he did not hear it a second time so he went home. Edgar Burgess, a farmer, living on the Mina Road about two hundred yards from Burnett's farm, told the court that he saw Webster's horse and trap pass at about dusk on the evening of January 23. Burgess was sleeping on a verandah at his home and between 10 and 10.30 the same night he heard a cart and horse stop at the front gate. He said he recognised Webster's voice. At ten past five the next morning Burgess was awakened by a cart coming down the road and he allegedly recognised Webster sitting m the driver's seat. The man with him In the cart, he thought, was,Pickens. William Robert Webster, a laborer, of Cheviot, who occupied a room with his son, the accused, m a boardinghouse at Cheviot, stated that, Webster did not come home on the night of Thursday, January 23. Arthur Leslie Hills, an engine driver, of Mina, said he met Pickens some time

near midnight on January 23 and drove up the Mina Road. They overtook Webster, who was m his trap, and they pulled up outside Burnett's gate where the three of them- drank a bottle of beer. Piekens and Hills both got out of the car, but Hills denied that he went near the hut. He said that he might have been seen from the door of the hut and he remembered warning Webster to leave the place. Leonard Clark, an employee m the Cheviot branch of- Pyne, Gould, Guinness, was a member ,of an identification parade held at the Cheviot courthouse. Webster was m the parade and after Miss Tyerman had left Clark allegedly heard Webster say: "The hat saved me."Webster: I never wear a hat. Clark: You had a hat on part of the time at the parade and it was when you were at the courthouse after the parade was over that you passed the remark that the hat had saved you.

It was to Constable F. T. Poole, of Cheviot, that the girl told the story of her night of terror. The constable, saw her at about x 6.30 on the morning, of January 24. . . "She was crying, looked tired and worn out and appeared to have had no sleep," stated the constable m evidence. When he inspected the hut he noticed that the blankets were all disarranged and m a heap and he found dead matches and a cigarette butt at the hut and an empty beer bottle by the gate. At the identification parade Miss Tyerman had identified Pickens as one of the men who had been at the hut while Bennett had picked out both Webster and Pickens as the men who had visited him on the previous night, and whom he had seen later m the night on the Mina Road. Webster, the constable stated, did not usually wear a hat, but during the first pa£t of the identification parade he was allowed to wear one. Webster, m hia alleged statement to the constable, said he drove up to Bennett's on the evening of January 23 looking for work. He then went on to Burnett's and when getting near -the back of the house called out: "Are you there, Jack?" A woman's voice answered: "Who goes there? Mr. Burnett is v out." Webster said there was no light m thevhut and he went m and sat m an armchair and offered the girl a cigarette. ■ ■ Then Pickens came m and started ta.lklnff, so Webster went out to the trap at the front gate and returned half an hour later. "Pickens then /went out and left me and I stayed for about ten minutes," the statement continued. "When I finally, left, Pickens had gone and I met him later about midnight. I do not remember going back to the girl's hut. I may have been there, but not that I know of. I had a good few drinks, but I was not drunk." In a further statement Webster allegedly made to the constable after being charged with the offence he said: "As far as I know I never interfered with her. I- may have. I don't' re- / member." This concluded the case against Webster, who' pleaded ,riot guilty, and was committed for trial. » The same witnesses were called to jrlve evidence m the case against Pickens and their statements were similar to those given m the first case against Webster. : Miss T>;erman stated that when Pickens returned the first time he grappled with her and tried^to kiss her. "I tried to «ing out," the girl said, "but I couldn't. I to tell on him the next morning and then Webster returned and soon after they went away." William Webster, father of the first accused, said he henrd Pickens coming home to the boarding-house about 6.30 or 7 o'clock on the morning of January 24. His son came m about the same time. In' the statement he made to the ponce Pickens allegedly said he was only at the hut for a short while and then left. Webster followed a little later and they went home about 11 p.m. Pickens reserved his defence and was also committed for trial.