EXTRAORDINARY ATTACK ON AN OFFICER

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 522, 18 May 1915, Page 7

EXTRAORDINARY ATTACK ON AN OFFICER

An extraordinary attack upon an army officer m Queen's road, Bayswater, was described/at. the Marylebone Police Court (London) .the other day. The accused was a slight and fashionably-dressed young woman, of independent means, named Violet Dean, residing at Princes square, Bayswater, and she was charged with having assaulted Captain E. Brown Poole, of the 3rd Dorset Regiment, who is staying at the Junior Army and Navy Club. Captain Poole explained that he was stationed at Wyke' Regis, near Weymouth, and was home on sick leave from the front. About , 6.15; p,m. on the previous day he was walking along the Queen's road, Bayswater, when he fe^t a '"blow on the shoulder.' He tuz'ned 'round to see what was wrong, and as he did so the accused struck at him three, or four times -with her umbrella. She was a complete stranger to him, and on his asking what she meant by her conduct she made, some remark' about the *British Army, and said she had been insulted seyer*al times '; by his men. In point of fact, Vaid Captain Poole, none pf his men were m London- to his knowledge. A crowd collected, and on the arrival of a police constable Jbe gave her into custody. Jn reply * to| tW>J_!_agistrate, Captain Poole said she' Struck *"kirn several times, and he protected* iMmself Jwith his injured arm. 'She was evidently coming m the opposite direction -to which he was going, and struck him. just. as she was passing by. Police-constable Attwooll said he asked the acctfsed why she had assaulted Captain Poole, and she, replied :"I~have been insulted by men like" ttfis." The handle of her umbrella, he pointed out, was broken. The accused!,- whp, arjpeared^ to be quite itnaffected by lier ''position, said her explanation was that she was angry at being insulted. ' "Whom by?" asked the Magistrate. "By men m uniform," she replied. "Ir have nothing else to say." Mr Paul Taylor said she had committed a serious offence,* which was aggravated by, the fact that she was evidently a woman of "education.. He sentenced her to one month's imprisonment iii tbe second division. ■-I .. >.":.- Mr C. V. Hill,- solicitor, subsequently appealed to the*, fylqgistrate to review his decision. The, ..reason she gave,, he said, was very extraordinary, and he had no other to offer; but she instructed him that she did not rea^« the consequences of her action, and very 'deeply regretted the position she was an. - Mr Paul Taylor : I shall certainly make no alteration iv my decision. It is one of the most outrageous assaults it has ever been my lot to listen to. Here is an officer of the Army walking about m the ordinary way, when "his uniform is grossly insulted by a woman of education. I regard it as a very serious offence. Mr Hill urged that she had no grudge, or malice against the officer. Mr Paul Taylor : The fact that she did not know* Kirn, and had not seen him before, and yet subjects him to this intolerable indignity on the public street, is a circumstance, to my mind, of the greatest aggravation. It is quite useless appealing to me m the matter.