KENT ASSAULT CASE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 31 May 1927, Page 8

KENT ASSAULT CASE.

BARONET IN COURT,

GIRL’S EVIDENCE GIVEN

LONDON, May 12.

Ten magistrates on the Maidstone Bench to-day resumed the hearing of the case in which the young baronet, Sir Gerard Willshire (who married the first time in Melbourne, a member of the “Kismet” company and whose second wife was Miss Vera Gaiuford, daughter of the late John Gaiuford, of Sydney, is charged with assaulting Jean Olds, the 22-year-old assistant to a Mayfair hairdresser. The court, was crowded.

Miss Olds is a tall, attractive shingled brunette. She wore a black dress trimmed with red, and a lightcoloured felt hat. Willshire, seated at the solicitors’ table, chatted and joked and betrayed no embarrassment. The prosecutor, opening the case, stated that Willshire visited a hotel at Maidenhead on May S, where a mutual friend introduced Miss Olds. He rang up Alias Olds the following evening at her business address in London and suggested dining together. Aliss Olds at first refused, blit afterwards consented.

Visit to London Hotels.

Willshire arrived at her lodgings at O p.m. and they drove to London hotels imd drank a cocktail and champagne, and then started out on a drive to Sit-ting-bourne, Kent, arriving- at the Star Hotel, at jMaidstone, at. 1 a.m.

Thence they set out to view the baronet’s former residence. After half an hour’s drive he suggested a walk and pulled up the car on the roadside. They entered a wood. 'Willshire suddenly seized Aliss Old’s arms from behind and tied them with .string. She struggled and escaped. Willshire said he was not -well and sat down on a grassy bank. . The girl, although very nervous, sat down alongside him. Then, without warning, Willshire forced cotton wool into her mouth, tied it witli a handkerchief, rolled her on to the grass and tied her hands behind. She struggled and screamed and again escaped. Willshire agreed to return to London, but approaching the motor-car he peremptorily ordered the girl to undress.

Girl Left in the Woods

Aliss' Olds, terrified, obeyed, completely disrobing, with the exception of her shoes and stockings, and Wiltshire rubbed a black substance all over her body. Then she ran off and for a long time wandered in the woods, arriving at a house at 4.30 a.m. The police later discovered Aliss Old’s clothes, pieces of string, cotton wool, empty, polish tins and wash leather gloves, covered with blacking, identified as belonging to Sir Gerard. There were distinct signs of a struggle. Willshire, when arrested, made a statement that he did not know what happened after leaving Maidstone, adding, “I thought I left her at Alaidstone. I have been ‘tight’ all the week-end.”

It -was difficult to believe, the prosecutor said, that the baronet had not contemplated the act, since he would not ordinarily have carried boot polish, string and cotton wool in his pocket. Aliss Olds might have acted indiscreetly, but. more latitude was allowed than formerly. Aliss 'Olds, giving evidence nervously and in a low voice, confirmed the prosecutor’s story, and identified the gloves and polish 'tins. She. requested the magistrates’ permission to write down Wiltshire's remarks while he was tying her up. When she first escaped, Widshiro said, “If you don’t stop shouting, i will do for you.” At first she refused to take off her clothes, but afterwards was so terrified that she submitted. Willshire held her wrists and smeared her with polish everywhere, including her face, which was'painfully bruislied. Frequently he said “keep still’ and finally just turned her loose.

Marie llarland gave evidence Unit Aliss Olds, naked, distraught and exhausted, knocked at her door at 4.30 a.m. She was blackened from head to foot.

A police sergeant said that when Sir Gerard was charged, he said. “It is blackmail.”

Accused was committed tor trial