GIRL INJURED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 305, 27 December 1939, Page 4

GIRL INJURED.

SAVAGE ATTACK.

MAN IN BEDROOM.

WOUNDS IOGBDED STITCHES.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 21

Miss Betty Cleary, daughter of the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, was the subject of a eudden end savage assault during the week-end.

She was staying with two girl friends in Pitt- Street, Kirribilli, and was eleeping in the same room with them. It was a warm night and the girls had left thn bedroom door open. About 2.30 a.m. Miss Cleary awakened to find a man standing beside her bed. Mumbling something which she did not hear he leaned over her. She sat up and screamed out and he struck her savagely with a piece of sandstone, bit* of which were found broken on the pillow and floor. The other girl* then awakened and the man fled. Mis* Cleary , * injuries were bo severe that she had to be taken to hospital immediately to have several stitches inserted in her wounds. At Leichhardt, Thelma George, 17, awakened by a slight noise, found a masked man at her bedroom window just above her bed. He wae kneeling on the window sill and had a handkerchief around his face. He told her he wanted to come in and warned her to keep quiet, but she called out to her father. Leaning down from the window sill the man grabbed her by the throat and said, "If you squeal I'll shoot." He then released her and fled. Police believe he is a Peeping Tom concerning whom they have had several complaints in the last few weeks.