ATTACK ON GIRL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20140, 9 January 1940, Page 3

ATTACK ON GIRL

INCIDENT IN SYDNEY MAN IN BEDROOM ' SYDNEY, Dec. 20. Miss Betty Cleary, aged 22, daughter of the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Mr. W. J. Cleary, was brutally assaulted at 2.30 a.m. yesterday. She was taken to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, North Sydney, where she was treated for head wounds and shock. With two other girls, Miss Cleary was staying the night with friends in Pitt street, Kirribilli. The three were asleep in the one room, when Miss Cleary, who was in a bed nearest the door, suddenly awoke. By the reflection from lights on the Harbour bridge she saw a man bending over her. He was mumbling incoherently. She screamed, and as she sat up the man struck her violently on the head with a piece of sandstone. He then lied through the open door into the street.

The other girls were awakened by their friend’s screams. One saw the man leaving the room. The piece of sandstone had broken in two, and was lying on the pillow. Miss Cleary had a deep gash on her head. The wound bled profusely. At the hospital stitches were inserted in the wound.