ALLEGED ASSAULT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19940, 8 May 1928, Page 9

ALLEGED ASSAULT.

FIVE MEN ON TRIAL. DARLINGHURST SENSATION. (Received May 7, 11.55 p.m.) SYDNEY. Mny 7. The trial was commenced to-day of Herbert Wilson, Frederick Payne, Phillip Jeffs, Ernest Wilson and Leslie Heath, in connection with the alleged assault upon Mrs. Maddocks on March 6, in Darlinghurst. Great public interest was manifested in the trial and a largo crowd of people frantically struggled to enter the Court.

With the exception of Heath the accused aro charged with a capital offence. Heath is indicted as an alleged accessory after the fact. All the accused pleaded not. guilty.

On the evening of March 6, Mrs. Maddocks was walking home when, she alleged, she was seized by two men,and dragged to an adjacent block of flats. There, slio said., she was assaulted by seven men. When she was allowed to depart she informed tho police, who arrested the five men named in the message. They were brought before a magistrate in the Sydney Police Court on March 23, and wero committed fnr trial. The hearing was in camera. Tho action of tho magistrate in excluding, tho press was widely condemned. Many leading barristers expressed the opinion that ho made a serious mistake in conducting such a case behind closed doors.