A BRUTAL ASSAULT.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8699, 7 January 1907, Page 2

A BRUTAL ASSAULT.

Per Press Association. Invercargill, January G. An outrage of a most diabolical and brutal nature was attempted by two men on a married woman on New Year’s Eve, in the Avenue, almost within cooee of the Invercargill town clock. The woman was going home after seeing friends off by a late train when a man gave a long whistle, an answering whistle coming from the front. The woman was frightened by the continued whistling, and soon observed that the man who first whistled was keeping pace with her on the opposite side of the footpath. Still she thought no harm could come to her on the main road; but, as soon as site turuled into a side street, the man rushed out and caught hold of her. Shel screamed, but was silenced with a blow on the mouth and felled to the ground. Further outcry was gagged by the villain’s hands, but the desperate struggles of the woman proventedj the man from accomplishing his purpose. His next move was to endeavour to ' strangle her. In the meantime the accomplice was stationed (it the corner, and the pair spoke to ejach other at intervals. One' of their proposals was that the almost cxlwiusted woman should be beaten into insensibility and conveyed to ik neighbouring plantation. Providentially a late car just then stopped at (the corner, several passengers alightjed, and the ruffians hud to fly. The I woman, half dead and speechless,! staggered to a neighbouring house, where friends attended to her. An examination of the spot shows that a desperate struggle must have taken place.