WOMEN TERRORISED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 48, 25 February 1913, Page 5

WOMEN TERRORISED.

A SCARES NEIGHBOURHOOD. MAX'S STRAXGE BEHAVIOUR, A fortnight ago a young lady residing with her parents in a two-storeyed house in Wynyard Road had a startling experience while proceeding along Porter's Avenue, which is but an extension of the same thoroughfare, across the Mount Eden railway live into Eden Terrace. The story has already tieen published of the manner in which she was assailed by a tall well-built man, and received ablow in the face which was severe enough to dislodge several of her front teethThe female residents of bouses immediately opposite have also been marked out for the attentions of apparently the same man, and according to information given to a " Star" representative who visited the locality this morning, the women of Wynyard Road are at the present time in a continual state of "scare."

The story given by a young married woman, living in Wynyard Street, near the corner of Eden Vale Road, *was a somewhat extraordinary ofle. On the Saturday afternoon previous to the actual assault already recorded, she left her home to do some shopping in town. A man met her before she had proceeded very far, and asked to be directed to .Symonds Street. He was told that he was walking away from Symonds Street, whereupon he tur-- , round and proceeded to acfomp:' '■. talking all the while. Anxious t rid of the man, she went into a frieaJ o house. Her surprise was considerable when she came out and found that he was waiting for her. She did not speak to the man, but he was voluble enough for two, and persisted in talking to her all the way along Karangahape Road. Twice she . went into shops in the hope of shaking off her unwelcome attendant, each time without avail. She was thoroughly frightened, and finally went into a "house, there to stay until the man went off. This be did. and his next move was to go to. the house she had visited, and ask her address stating that he had found some property she had lost. On three occasions since then the man has gone to the house in Wynyard Street, in the absence of her husband, whose departure in his motor car was apparently witnessed in each instance 'by the man before visiting the house. The young wife' 3 practice has been to lock up the house immediately after her husband's departure, and two nights running the man tried the doors both back and front. Becoming more emboldened he visited the house one morning just after the hisband had motored on". The mistres3 was in the washhouse, which is underneath the building,, and had locked the doors upstairs, so that when she heard the bell ring, and then heard the door tried, she knew who her visitor was. Unsuccessful at the front door he tried the back, and the woman, in her fear, filled a dipper with boiling water, and says the man would have got it had he thought of trying to force the washhouse door. Finding the back door locked also, however, the man went off. His description coincides with the previous assault.

Another lady living a few doors away, was also followed by the same man a day or two ago. She was pursued from U ynyard Street into View Road, thence along Esplanade Road into Point Street. Taking refuge in a shop, the man was seen to hang about outside for some time before moving off. Several cases hare also been reported of the scaring of children in the same locality.