MAN IN GREY CAP.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

MAN IN GREY CAP.

NIGHT ATTACK ON GIRL.

ROBBED IN DARKNESS ON COMMON.

Scotland Yard officers are helping the local police in the search for a man who attacked and robbed Nancy Geary, a shop girl, on Wimbledon Common. Suspicion is said to have fallen upon a local young man about whose conduct girls have previously complained. The assailant is described as about sft 6in tall, with a rough sort of moustache, and had not been shaved for some time. He wore a dark suit and a grey cap. The girl, whose home is in West Side. Wimbledon Common, was approached suddenly by the man while on her way home across the common from her work at a shop in High Street, Wimbledon. He threw an overcoat over her head and pulled her to the ground. When she screamed he threatened to cut her throat. Afterwards he ran away, taking with him the girl's purse. Miss Geary, an iu active girl with fair hair, was suiiering from shock. In an interview she said: "I reached the south side of the common at about 6 o'clock. It was dark and a gale of wind was blowing, and I did not see a soul about. When I was crossing by the pond, which is about half-way across the south side of the common, I saw a sort of shadow. I half turned, and I just had a glimpse of a man as he threw an overcoat over my head and shoulders, and' caught hold of me. I screamed as loudly as I could, but he threw me to the ground and held me there by the throat. I struggled and kicked and tried to scream, but 1 could not owing to his grip. ~" The . n * Baw *°- °Pen clasp knife in his right hand, and he inflicted a small cut in my throat," continued Miss Geary "He said that if I did not keep quiet he would kill me. Hβ eaid to me: 'I have been watching for you/ but I had never seen him before. When he left me he opened my handbag and took my purse Then he ran off towards Wimbledon It was an hour later when I got home, and my parents went to inform the police My father went to the spot and gathered U &. my * e° loshes .. B lov es, a hair slide, and other things which I had dropped in the struggle.