WOMAN ASSAULTED

Northern Advocate, 4 August 1932, Page 6

WOMAN ASSAULTED

DYING DEPOSITIONS TAKEN.

HUSBAND ARRESTED

SYDNEY, July 25,

Ellen Frances Rich, about 36, a married woman, was admitted to the Orange District Hospital on Saturday in a critical condition, suffering from a fractured skull, and other serious injuries. 1

John Charles Rich, 44, her husband, has been arrested, and has been charged with shooting at her with intent to murder her. Ihe couple wore living apart. Mrs. Rich had been granted a maintenance order. According to statements made by the police, there had been a dispute over the custody of a child. In her statement to the police, Mrs. | Rich said that she went to her room at her home in Kite Street, Orange, about <S p.m. on Saturday, intending to retire for the night. Her husband was under the bed, armed with a rifle. She ran out of the room into the diningroom, where he caught her, and threw her heavily to the floor. A shot was fired, which missed her, and then she was struck over the head repeatedly. Hearing Mrs. Rich screaming, -two men in the house went to her .assistance. They pulled her assailant from her, and lie ran out of the' house into the darkness. Mrs. Rich had been terribly battered about the face and head. She was taken to hospital, and her dying depositions were taken by a niagistrate. Police subsequently examined the dining-room, and found on the floor the splintered stock of a rifle, but careful examination failed to show any sign of a bullet they had expected to find lodged somewhere in the walls or floor. The husband was arrested the same o\ening, in bed-at his brother’s home

.'it Mullion Creek, 12 miles from Orange. The police were informed that earlier in the day he and Mrs. ich had had a meeting, and that Rich had taken from his wife’s custody their small son, but that the boy had later been restored to his mother.