ALLEGED ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 143, 19 February 1915, Page 4

ALLEGED ASSAULT AND ROBBERY

TWO MEN BADLY KNOCKED ABOUT. HUNTERVILLE, Yesterday. A "sensation has been caused by the report of an alleged assault and robbery in Hunterville on Wednesday. It seems that Robert McLean, a labourer by occupation, retired to his bedroom early, and soon went off to sleep. At about midnight, however, he was awakened by an unusual noise in his room, and he soon discovered that his privacy had been broken into, and that two strongly built men had taken possession of the room. He got out of the room into inline to escape, but they quickly got hold of him and threw him back on the bed, and he alleges they nearly throttled him. They p.lso took his trousers, and went through the pockets, from which they extracted about 30/-. The room of another inoffensiveold man named John Butler was next visited, and his trousers' pockets "were also investigated, but in this case the visitors were unsuccessful in supplementing the sum they had taken by force from the adjacent lodger. The men, it is alleged, were guilty of very harsh treatment, and as a result of the rough handling they meted out to Butler, the victim was uitc' ill, and every bono in his body ached with the treatment he received. Mr. McLean subsequently proceeded to the police station, and acquainted Constable Grey of the occurrence. The latter proceeded to the hotel, and as a result of his investigations two warrants were issued for the arrest of two men suspected, both of whom, it is stated, arc well known in Hunterville and Taihape districts.