OUTRAGE ALLEGED

Southland Times, Issue 18974, 22 June 1923, Page 6

OUTRAGE ALLEGED

GIRL ASSAULTED IN CHRISTCHURCH. POLICE DISCREDIT STORY. (Special to the Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 21. The sensational affair at Burwood, in which a young woman, 19 years of age, is reported to have been indecently assaulted by a man under menace of a loaded revolver is being thoroughly investigated by the police, but the police are inclined to discredit the story of the girl. “We have not been able to obtain a tittle of evidence in support of the girl’s account,” was a remark made by a police officer to a reporter to-day, “and the whole affair seems improbable. Apart from other matters which have led to this conclusion, the assault is alleged to have taken place on a portion of the Lake road with houses so close at hand that they are within a stone’s throw.” Although the police inclined to this view, they are not relaxing their investigations in any way, as the matter is too serious. The effect of the story on nervous women demands that there should be a final clearing-up of the affair one way or the other; indeed, yesterday the police at Lyttelton were advised that a man of about 35 years, which age approximates that of the girl’s alleged assailant, embarked on the ferry steamer and seemed in a great hurry to get on board. On the off-chance of developments, the police in Wellington were advised to investigate his bona fides on his arrival at Wellington.