STORY OF ASSAULT

Otago Witness, Issue 3510, 21 June 1921, Page 25

STORY OF ASSAULT

RAILWAY CADET'S FABRICATION.

ALCKLAND, Juno 15. It was reported to the police at Tuakaai oil .Sunday that on tlie previous night a railway cadet named Ellis (\ Bowbyes had been accosted and brutally assaulted on a lonely part ot tile road i. tw.en tile railway station and tho boarding-house at which Bowbyes lodged. Prompt search of the district was mad© by tho Pukolcohe police, and later Detective Sergeant Hammond made inquiries at Tuakau. Not only tho seeno of tho alleged assault, but also the story of Bowbyes was closely scrutinised lor a clue, and some unexpected discrepancies in the account of tho affair led the detective to concentrate on obtaining continuation of the story. Jt was established that one night before Saturday a resident was accosted at the place concerned. The matter had been a subject of discussion at Bowbyes’ boarding-house. r JTien Bowbyes, a youth of 17, was invited to describe minutely the assault he said ho had suffered, and to explain how the kicks definitely alleged to have been dealt on his body, and a suspected blow from a sandbag, had left no mark on him. Under cross examination and scrutiny the youth failed to sustain his tale, and he eventually confessed that it was a hoax, suggested by the incident of tho other man be ng accosted, and perpetrated because he was nervous of having to pass this part of th<* road in the dark and in the early hours of the morning in the course of his railway duty. In military parlance the previous incident had “put the wind up him.”