BLINDED BY PEPPER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

BLINDED BY PEPPER.

ATTACKED AND ROBBED,

Two violent attacks on pedestrians in different parts of London under cover of darkness were reported to the police during one week-end recently. Pepper was thrown into the eyes of Mr. Henry Elston. (32), of Letchwortli Street, Tooting, when he was attacked and robbed on a lonely part of Mitcham Common late on Saturday night. After throwing the pepper the footpad knocked Mr. Elston into a ditch and robbed him of 17/.

"I had been visiting my brother," Mr. Elston told a pressman, "and had just missed a tram when the man suddenly appeared in front of me and asked: 'Got a match, mate?' While I was feeling for one he threw the pepper in my face. I was in agony and blinded, and the man was able to throw me into the ditch. He was thick set, about my own age, wore a trilby hat, and had an unlighted cigarette •in his mouth. I shouted for help, but it was .five minutes before anybody came to my assistance. Motorists refused to stop, and I cannot blame them, as they probably feared a trap." Police surrounded the common, but could find no trace of the thief. Miss Brenda Day (25), a typist, was found with a severe wound on the head in Parkwav, Gidea Park, Essex. She was walking down Parkway, where she is staying with a Mrs. Wyatt, and shortly after exchanging a "Good night" greeting with a cyclist—a stranger—she received a severe blow on the head from behind. Romford police think it possible that Miss Day was struck by a stone thrown from a spinney, but they are anxious to interview the cyclist.