Youth to face assault charge

Press, 19 April 1985, Page 5

Youth to face assault charge

A youth has been arrested and charged with indecent assault, aggravated robbery, and burglary after an attack on an elderly woman at her Bryndwr home on Wednesday evening. The youth, aged 15, will appear in the Children and Young Persons Court today. A police spokesman said strong leads were being followed in connection with two other suspects in the attack. The woman, aged 64, was badly shaken but not seriously hurt in the attack. Detective Senior-Sergeant Michael Muddiman said that a neighbour, Mr Craig Sawers, had come to her aid after hearing a commotion and had driven the intruders off. Detective Senior-Sergeant Muddiman said that the woman was in bed at her Bushby Place home shortly before 11 p.m. when she saw three men run past outside. A few minutes later she heard a noise in the kitchen, and remembered she had not locked the back door. She called out, “Who’s there?” and a man, believed to be a Maori, entered her bedroom. She picked up a telephone but he ripped it

from her hands, pulling it off the wall. A second man entered and put an article, probably a blanket, over the woman's face. He told her she would be raped if she did not tell them where money was. He also asked if she was on medication, and if so where it was. She replied that she needed her medication, but the men refused to release her and dragged her about the house. The attackers kept yelling, “Where’s the money’ and where’s the pills?” They struck her on the left eye and knocked her into the toilet. Mr Sawers then entered the house and confronted the two men, having seen a third man in the driveway. He fought them off her and they left the property. While the intruders were fleeing, Mr Sawers was threatened with a broken sherry bottle. The intruders made off through a neighbouring property. Mr Sawers had said he had smelled alcohol on the breaths of the two men, said Detective Senior-Sergeant Muddiman.