LICENSEE AND WIFE ATTACKED IN BED

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31936, 13 March 1969, Page 1

LICENSEE AND WIFE ATTACKED IN BED

The licensee of the Yaldhurst Hotel, Mr D. K. Burke, aged 41, and his wife, Mrs M. F. Burke, aged 37, were attacked in their bedroom by two young men early yesterday morning.

The men burst into the bedroom, hit Mrs Burke on the head with a trinket box from the dressing table, and hit Mr Burke with a bottle while both were still in bed. The intruders fought with Mr Burke for about five minutes, and hit Mrs Burke repeatedly before they ran away.

“They evidently thought 1 had a large sum of money in the bedroom," Mr Burke said last evening, “but they got nothing. I didn't give them a chance to get anything. Mr Burke suffered cuts on the head and a wrist, and bruises on the body. Mrs Burke suffered head abrasions and deep bruises on the body. A small, woodenhandled knife, with a honed six-inch blade, was found on the bedroom floor after the intruders had fled.

“My wife woke me after she had heard a noise outside our bedroom door,” Mr Burke said. “She thought it was one

of the children, and called out for her to go to sleep. We have two children, Paula, aged 10, and Janette, aged 13, both of whom were asleep in the hotel.

“My wife put the light on, then turned it off and shut the door. She went back to sleep, “I think now that the two men were waiting and must have looked through the bed-

room door. After 15 minutes, during which we heard no sound, we were woken by two men bursting through our door. “One of them came round to my side of the bed. The other grabbed a trinket box off the dressing-table and smashed it over the head of my wife three times. The other attacked me with a beer bottle, hitting me over the head and body. My wife was

(hiding under the blankets in fear of her life.

“I got my feet into the stomach of one of the men and pushed him off. I got up and charged them, giving them everything I had. My wife was again being thumped. I could not do anything in the dark but fight back.

“The fight pould have lasted five minutes, but I was dazed

and have no real sense of the time it lasted. I kept fighting back and suddenly both the men ran out of the room.” Mr Burke said he tried to ring the police, but found that the telephone in the bedroom had been pulled out. He telephoned from the bar. The two children were awakened by the noise of the fight, but did not venture out of their bedroom until the intruders had fled.