A DIABOLICAL OUTRAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8326, 7 January 1907, Page 5

A DIABOLICAL OUTRAGE.

A WOMAN BRUTALLY ASSAULTED. By Telegraph—Press Association. INVERCARGILL, Jan. 6. An outrage of the most diabolical and brutal nature was attempted by two men —human tigers rather —on a married woman, on New Year's Eve, in an avenue almost within • 'coo-ee" of the Invercargill Town Clock. The woman was going home after seeing some friends 6ff by a late train, when a man on a fence gave a long whistle, an answering whistle coming from in front. The woman was frightened, by the continued whistling, and soon observed that the ,man who first whistled was keeping pace on the opposite footpath. Still she thought no harm could come to her on the main road, but as soon as she turned into a side street a man rushed out and caught hold of her. She screamed, but was silenced with a blow on the mouth and felled to the ground. A further outcry was gagged by the villain's hand, but the desperate struggles of the woman prevented the man from accomplishing his purpose. His next move was to endeavour to strangle her. In the meantime the accomplice was stationed at tne corner and the pair spoke to each other at intervals. One of their proposals was that the almost exhausted woman should be beaten into insensibility and conveyed to a neighbouring plantation. Providentially a late car just then stopped at the corner, and several passengers alighted, and the ruffians had to fly. The woman, half dead and speechless, staggered to a neighbour's house, where friends attended to*her. An examination of the spot shows that a desperate struggle must have taken, place.