WOMAN ATTACKED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23433, 24 August 1939, Page 13

WOMAN ATTACKED

MAN SNATCHES HANDBAG KNOCKED DOWN IN STREET SCARF THROWN OVER HEAD i [bt TELEGRAPH —OWN correspondent] ROTORUA, "Wednesday A savage assault on an unattended married woman in a lonely part of Ranolf Avenue occurred shortly before midnight on Monday. The victim was Mrs. Joyce Neil, of Lake Road, OhlnemutUj who was walking home at about 11.45 p.m. after leaving the tearooms where she is employed. Police and detectives are now searching for her assailant. In a statement to the police Mrs. Neil said that while walking .up .Arawa Street she noticed a man dodge into a doorway and hide there while she passed. As she drew opposite the doorway, he grunted and startled her. Shortly before 6he reached the second entrance to the Kuirau Reserve she heard someone running behind her and almost immediately a man threw his left arm around her waist and his right arm across her face. A towel or a scarf was thrown over Mrs. Neil's head as she She was then thrown backward into one of the many pools of water lying at the side of the road. After seizing her handbag, which contained money and her wedding and engagement rings, her assailant ran off into the reserve. Much shaken and soaked to the skin, she staggered to LakQ House Hotel, w here oue of the porters telephoned t<? the police.

Mrs. Neil was unable to give any detailed description of the man, 'but she described him as a half-caste Maori of about 25 years of age.