ALLEGED MURDEROUS ASSAULT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18509, 21 March 1922, Page 7

ALLEGED MURDEROUS ASSAULT.

MAN KICKED AND BATTERED THROWN INTO A GREEK UNCONSCIOUS. - —~ HTR CONDITION SERIOU& ' ‘ , FOUR MEN ARRESTED. (Pb U«itbd Pbeu AutmimJ TB KUITI, Moroh 20. Details are to hand of a partioaUrly brutal and murderous assault which is alleged to have taken place at Kopaki ohtjte night of March 18, when William Routledge, a ranger of the Auckleihl Acclimatisation Society, waa kicked _ ahq 'loitered into an unconscious condition and then thrown into a creek. It appears that the perpetrators of the aaaaut had taken possession of a ease of whisky that afternoon and that six bottles bad been drank prior to the assault. It is alleged that ia their maddened condition they became obsessed with the idea that Routledge, who waa a stranger to the district, waa a spy in the pay of the police, Routledge, on refusing an invitation to drink, was rushed by the four men and dragged out da, the road. He was kicked and battered and rendered unconscious, dragged through two chains anda-half of blackberry, and thrown in a creek. He revived in the cold water and scrambled up the other side and hid in a wood pile. He heard the four men lookintr for him, and heard one of them say, “He must be dead.” He crawled barefooted for two miles and a-half to a termhouse, where he arrived in a state of collapse. and • covered in blood. In response to a telephone message Sergeant Feapday and Constable Kennedy, accompanied by Dr M‘Rae, went to Kopaki, where the victim was medically attended to and brought to Te Kuiti. He is in a dangerous condition, and is weak from loss of blood. Herbert Holgate (a contractor) Richard Daly (a farmer, of Kopaki), Leonard Grundy, and Alfred Glover (busfamen, a of Aratoro) have been arrested on suspicion of being the perpetrators of the Assault. At the Magistrate’s Court thia morning the four accused were remanded for seven days. It is expected that it will be 8 long time before Routledge will fully recover.