POLICEWOMAN "DUCKED."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18779, 5 August 1924, Page 5

POLICEWOMAN "DUCKED."

VIOLENCE OF A GIRL.

TRAGEDY NARROWLY AVERTED.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ]

SYDNEY. July 31.

An extraordinary story of the ducking of a policewoman by a-sturdy State girl was told at the Adelaide Police Court a few days ago, when the girl was charged with having assaulted the policewoman while the latter was acting in the execution of her duty. It was stated that the defendant ran away from her fosterparents at Norwood. When Policewomen Northridge and Foster attempted to arrest her as a State absconder at a house at Magill, she again,ran away and jumped into a creek. Miss Northridge followed her, and was thrown face downwards in the water. The girl held her under by the arm and the back of the neck. Policewoman Foster came up just in time, rescued the officer ( ?nd arrested the girl. She resisted violently, but with the assistance of three men was taken from the creek and brought to the city watchhouse in a car, resisting violently all the way. Miss Northridge might easily have been drowned, Sergeant Allchurch, who prosecuted, said. The police had taken a lenient view of the case owing to the probable excitement of the defendant. She said she only wished to duck the policewoman, but if the latter had been under water a minute longer the consequences would have been fatal. The girl had been committed to the care of the State Children's Council as an uncontrollable child, and that body asked that she should not be gaol. Mr. F. G. Byrne, who watched the case for the State Children's Department, said the defendant was not regarded by them as a bad girl. She had stated that she was sorry for what she had done. He had been instructed by the council to ask that she should not be imprisoned, but if a sentence should be imposed that the warrant should be witliheld. The girl should be returned to tho reformatory. Two months' imprisonment was ordered, the warrant being withheld until applied for. Policewoman Northridge suffered from shock, as a result of the girl's action, pnd had to be granted sick leave.