NO ARREST MADE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22538, 1 October 1936, Page 14

NO ARREST MADE

ASSAULT ON MATRON RELUCTANT WITNESSES DIFFICULTIES OF POLICE Hundreds of persons have been interviewed about the recent assault upon the matron of St. Cuthbert's College, Epsom, but the police who are investigating the case have not secured sufficient information to warrant an arrest. Cases of this nature frequently present difficulties .for the police. Chief among these difficulties, perhaps, is the understandable reluctance of women witnesses to proffer information which, they fear, might involve them in publicity that would bring their names before the notice of the public. Actually, their fears are groundless, and their refraining from giving the police the benefit of observations made round about the time of an assault or some similar act, frequently prevents the authorities from identifying the man concerned. Inquiries into the incident at St. Cuthbert's College on September 12 have elicited information concerning several cases involving insulting behaviour by men during the past few months. In the majority of instances the police were told they were not informed because the woman feared the publication of her name. The position in such circumstances is that the Department, of Justice has power to protect women Avitnesses from the possibility of their public identification.