THE BRUTAL ASSAULT AT CHRISTCHURCH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1275, 9 December 1884, Page 3

THE BRUTAL ASSAULT AT CHRISTCHURCH.

W. Tyrell, Wm. Peacock, and John A. Cotton, three young men w'ho had been arrested on suspicion of having outraged a woman on Monday night last at Christchurch under circumstances of extraordinary brutality, were on Friday committed for trial on a charge of criminal assault, bail being refused. The evidence went to show that the woman outraged was married, her husband at present being in Geelong. Some two years ago she was struck with paralysis, and since then she has been an almost constant patient in the hospital. She left the hospital a few weeks ago of her own accord and went into lodgings, being supported out of the “ Discharged Patient’s Fund.” Whilst in the hospital she made the acqnaintance of a Mrs Thomson and her son, and it was these people she went to visit on the night of the assault. She left their house rather late. On her way home she heard some one behind her, and on turning round she saw they were youths. They immediately took hold of her, and despite her struggles and screams (which they strove to st fle with their hands) carried her into a paddock near the passenger station, where she .alleges they severally outraged her, and in this respect her evidence is borne out by one or two witnesses. A policeman then came on the scene, and her assailants decamped, but a man, whom she swears was one of them, was captured by the constable, and the other two, alleged to have been his companions, were taken on the following day. The case looks very black against the prisoners. Taken altogether the crime is one of the most dreadful of its kind ever perpetrated.