Rape attempt on girl alleged

Press, 28 March 1979, Page 4

Rape attempt on girl alleged

“A man has done some terrible things to me,” a I girl, aged 10, told her father' when he found her running ou' of a house in Daresburyi I Lane, Riccarton, last month. I This evidence was given: - before Messrs M. W. Bur-: -'bery and E. W. Tippins, Jus-.j (tices of the Peace, in the] I Magistrate's Court yesterday I during the taking of depos-j t'itions against Eric Ramsay | Dacombe, aged 55, a bottle' i! sorter, on charges of at- i . tempted rape, and taking ! I away a girl without her con-, • I sent, with intent to have! ! sexual intercourse with her. | The father of the girl —i [ both names were .■suppressed — told the j Court that in the early] afternoon of February 18 his | daughter’s friend came running to him at his house and (pointed down the road. He ran to where she said his daughter was. As he got to the end of the street where the defendant lived he saw his daughter come running out of a drive. She was in a very shocked state he said. She told t i him that a man had picked ■ (her up and taken her down lithe drive, and she had i pointed in the direction of • the house. ”1 ran down the drive-way 1 and bashed on the front , door of the house but re- ’ ceived no reply,” said the father. After running round the house and calling out asking

if anybody was about he said that a man, whom he identified as the defendant, came out of a side door of the house. “I told him my daughter had been sexually assaulted and asked him if he did it,” said the father. The defendant allegedly told the girl’s father that he lived there with a “young bloke” who could have done it and that he had “taken off” down the drive. The father said that after he started off in pursuit I he suddenly felt the Iman knew a Tot more than (he was telling. I He said that when he (went back the door was Hocked and he had it in his mind to kick the doors or window in when a young woman came up the drive. She said. “For goodness) sake, what is going, on?” “I told her my daughter had been sexually assaulted and she said she lived at the place with her husband, young son, and a boarder, whose name was Eric,” said the father. “She told me to go and get the police and she would go in and handle him, or words to that effect,” he said.

The woman. Mrs Suzanne Christine Johnson, said in evidence, that at the time of the incident she was with her husband and son at a neighbour’s place when she saw a man running around the house. “I got my husband and went inside and asked Eric if it was true that he had assaulted the man’s little girl. “He said yes and then I asked him if he took her into his bedroom.” “I think he said yes,” said Mrs Johnson. She said that she also asked him if he had taken her

pants down, to which he had replied, “something like that." After that Mrs Johnson said she felt uncomfortable. "I told him that if he felt that way he should have I gone to see a doctor or told me about it,” she said. Under cross-examination, counsel (Mr P. R. van Rij): asked Mrs Johnson if she had a parental influence on the defendant. "Eric needed somebody to help him make his decisions and he reacted like a child in some ways.” she said. "He would tell the truth.’' "He wouldn't say he had done it if he hadn’t,” she said. Detective Constable S. A. Carlton gave evidence of al statement the defendant made to him at the police! station after he was arrested. I Detective Constable Carl- ( ton said it took the de-1 fendant some time to say that the allegations against: him were right. Dacombe told the detective that he had gone to a dairy at lunchtime. On his way home via a track beside ■ the railway line near Danes-: bury Lane he had seen two j girls. He said that he asked one l of the girls to come and look] at his record player. She decided not to but he picked her up and cradled her. In his own words he said he had a “sense of sex” said the detective constable. The girl asked to be put down which he said he did and then he led her into the house by the hand.

He allegedly put her on I his bed and attempted to rape her and perform indecent acts on her. The defendant said in the (statement that he tcdd the ■ girl not to tell anyone what had happened. “She was frightened." he said. Mr Van Rij extensively' cross-examined Detective (Constable Carlton to try to establish whether he had written words in the statement by the defendant which he could not understand I Questions were raised by : counsel as to the defendant’s ‘level of intelligence. The depositions were adjourned to April 23 to hear evidence from Dr Morgan I Fahey who is at present i overseas. Dacombe was remanded in I custody.