DARING ATTACK ON GIRL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 934, 29 March 1930, Page 1

DARING ATTACK ON GIRL

Assailant Uses Ammonia SOAKED CLOTH HELD OVER FACE fc. - v Assault Near City Police Station

WHEN returning to her employer’s home in Princes Street, about 10.30 o’clock last evening, Leah Baker, a domestic, aged 18, was attacked by an unknown man who attempted to suffocate her with an ammonia-covered cloth.

The girl had been out for the evening and was returning to the house o? Mr. W. J. Ralph, where she was employed as a domestic. The house :is within 100 yards of the police station. When she was entering an alleyway at the hack of the house, a man sprang forward, seized her round the waist and pulled a cloth soaked in ammonia across her face. The girl screamed frantically and a struggle ensued for some minutes. Another girl, hearing the cries, rushed to her assistance and the attacker made off into Albert Pari;, escaping without being pursued. Miss Baker was in a scmi-fainting condition and was seized with a bad attack of hysteria. It was some minutes before her story could be told coherently.

i The police were notified immediI ately and on arriving at the scene ] commenced a thorough search lor the | unknown assailant. j They found a beer bottle close at I hand, the contents of which proved j to be ammonia. Miss Baker can give no description Lot her assailant except the fact that jhe was tall and wore a cap pulled down over his eyes, j She is at present confined to her I room suffering from shock and the I effects of the strong dose of ammonia. I Miss Baker’s lips and cheeks were | burned and swollen; Ammonia has a very pungent odour, I a powerful caustic taste and a stihg--1 ing alkaline reaction. A person can be easily suffocated by the application of too much of the liquid pressed over | the nostrils on a cloth.