BLOW ON FACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 230, 28 September 1936, Page 8

BLOW ON FACE.

MIDNIGHT ATTACK. MAN STRIKES GIRL. ASSAILANT ON BICYCLE. POLICE SEARCH IN PROGRESS. While on her way home after a dance at Avondale shortly after midnight on Saturday night, a young woman, Miss Thelnia Oxton, who lives with her parents in Bolton Street, Blockhouse Bay, in the Avondale district, was bratally attacked by an unknown man, who, after placing his hands on her mouth, struck her a number of blows and knocked lier to the ground. Miss Oxton attended a dance in the Oddfellows' Hall at Avondale on Saturday night. She left the dance hall at midnight and boarded a bus, which took her near to her home, via Taylor Street and Bolton Street. After she left the bus she walked along Bolton Street in the middle of the road. It was then 12.15 a.m. When near her home she noticed a man riding a bicycle on the footpath proceeding in the same di'rection. The cyclist overtook her and she quickened her pace as she was nearing her home. She had 1,0 cross over the footpath in order to enter the gate, and as she did so the man dismounted from his cycle and -jvalked towards the gate. As Miss Oxton, was in the act of lifting the latch of the gate the man said to her, "Do you live here ?" She did not reply. Before she had time to call for assistance the man placed his hands on her mouth and gagged her. She struggled with him, and, being unable to free herself from his grip, had the presence of mind to bite him hard. This caused him to let her go. Assailant Disappears. The man. then struck Miss Oxton a vicious blow on the face, knocking her to the concrete gate entrance, which is about 100 yards from her house. As she fell, Miss Oxton's head came in contact with the pathway. She got up, rather dazed, and screamed for assistance, and called out, "Dad, dad! Come quickly!" Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Oxton, were in bed, but they heard her cries and immediately rushed out and took their daughter inside._ Quickly dressing, Mr. Oxton got his bicycle and rode round the district in search of his daughter's assailant, but could find no trace of a lone cyclist. After striking the girl, the unknown man ran some distance to where he left his cycle, jumped on it, and made off in the direction of New Lynn. Miss Oxton was bruised on the left side of the face and one eye was badly blackened. Although she did not require medical attention, she was not well enough to go to work to-day. "Molesting" of Girls. "There is a man of strange habits in the district," said Mr. George Oxton, who is employed at Astley's Tanneries, New Lynn, when seen this morning. "This is not the first time such an assault.has occurred out this way. Only last week two little girls were molested by a man 011 a bicycle. I rode round until 3 o'clock yesterday morning looking for the man that attacked my daughter, but, unfortunately, I could not get hold of him." On several occasions last week Detective T. Sneddon was engaged in making investigations in the Titirangi. New Lynn and Avondale districts for a man suspected of molesting girls. Last Monday about 8.30 a girl aged 12 was accosted' by a man on a bicycle on the Titirangi Boad, but he disappeared when a baker's cart came into view. The next day another little girl was stopped by a man riding a cycle. This man, it is alleged, tried to entice -the child to go for a ride with him on the machine, but she refused and hurried away. As a result of these incidents women in the district are showing considerable' alarm and many will not venture out even in the early evening, without escorts. Meanwhile a search of the district is in progress, the police being determined to trace the man responsible.