OUTRAGGE UPON A WOMAN NEAR MELBURNE.

Southland Times, Issue 627, 4 February 1867, Page 3

OUTRAGGE UPON A WOMAN NEAR MELBURNE.

By late advices from Victoria, we have received intelligence of a most atrocious outrage perpetrated at Emerald-hill, upon a single young woman named Eliza Maekay Gunnell, who lately arrived in the colony from England, by the ship Essex. It appears from the statement of the woman that she had been spending her time on a recent day with some friends, at the Botanical Gardens, and was returning home with them in the evening, when among the crowds which thronged the streets, she got separated from her friends and missed the way. After i some time being unable to find them, she inquired of a man the way to Moray's Hotel, where she knew her friends were staying. The person she accosted said he was going the same way, andwould. show her the house. He took her through-some streets, aud ultimately across the r Falls-bridge. Her first statement of the case to the police was, that beyond conversing together, nothing transpired between them until the alleged offence was committed, but she has since owned that the man persuaded her to enter some hotel near the Tarra, where she partook of some wine at his expense. After crossing the bridge she became stupified, and is not very clear as to what took place, until she found herself in the man's company near the fence of the railway lines, when he suddenly attacked her, throwing her down, and as he put his handkerchief over her mouth, she was unable to raise an alarm, and powerless to resist his brutal violence. Some time after she recovered her senses, when the man made a fresh attack upon her and repeated the outrage. At this time she _was sufficiently recovered to raise an alarm, and Constable Brien A 29, who was passing down the Sandridgeroad, hearing her cries, hastened to the spot, when the miscreant made off, and succeeded in escaping. The constable at once proceeded to assist Gunnell, whom he conveyed to the watchhouse in a helpless and exhausted state. During the remainder of the night she continued in such a weak condition, apparently suffering from the violence of the usage she had met with, that Sergeant Ellis considered it necessary to obtain medical assistance for her. Dr Haig attended her, and the result of his examination left no doubt as to the truth of her statements. She had also received very serious internal injuries to the chest, and he advised her immediate removal to the Melbourne Hospital, where she was conveyed after she had sworn an information against the offender. A very minute description of the man was furnished to the police, and certain information falling into their hands, they were enabled to obtain a good clue to his identification, but on visiting the place where he generally worked, they found he had absconded.