ATTACK ON SLEEPER

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 101, 23 January 1933, Page 10

ATTACK ON SLEEPER

Ammonia Thrown Into Woman’s Bedroom

unknown assailant

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, Jan. 21

A dastardly • attack upon a young married woman who was asleep in the front bedroom of. a bouse in Carlton Gore Road at 11.30 on Thursday night was made by an unknown man who raised the window and threw a quantity of ammonia at her. Fortunately the liquid did not reach the woman S face, otherwise she might have lost her eyesight. Just inside the front window there was a table on which stood an ornament in the shape of a large dressed doll, and it is thought that the assailant’s aim was deflected by it. A large quantity of the fluid was spilt on the floor and the walls of the room just beneath the window frame. The liquid quickly coagulated, and it is believed that some other equally dangerous chemical was mixed with the ammonia. The victim of' the attack resides ( with her parents. Her husband was absent on Thursday night, and she occupied a large front bedroom by herself. Her father was away from the city,- and the young woman was alone, her mother and sister having gone to the house of a relative a block or so away. “I was dozing off when I heard the blind rattle a little,” the young woman told a reporter. “As the night was so hot I left the window a few inches open at the bottom. I did not take much notice of the blind rattling, as it often does that. I did not hear or see anyone walking on the veranda outside the window, but I afterward heard the window being lifted. I then knew that something was wrong. Before I could realise what was happening I heard a noise like water being thrown on the floor. None of the liquid came near the bed, which is situated six or seven feet away from the window, but the fumes immediately overcame me, and I could not see. my eyes hurting me terribly. The fumes were so strong that I could hardly breathe. - I managed to get out of bed and get a torch, and after some, time I groped my way out of the room and into a passage.” Even two hours after the attack on the young woman the fumes were so strong that it was almost impossible for'anyone to remain in the house without becoming affected by them.