GAGGED AND BOUND

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1930, Page 13

GAGGED AND BOUND

TAXI-DRIVER ROBBED. LEFT BY THE ROADSIDE. 'Two men who hired a taxi-driver, Mr. Herbert William Ind, at Orange, New South Wales, to take them to Sydney one night recently stopped the car and brutally assaulted the driver. After robbing, binding and gagging''hipi, they threw him into a clump of bushes aridthen drove off at a furious speed toward Syflney. Filling his tank with petrol, Mr. Ind, whp w a3 Fold by the two men that they were in a huny to reach Sydney, flrpvp toward Bafhurst. Soon after passing a petrol bowser, about 15 miles opt from Bathprst, one of the men leaped forward, touched him. on the arm and told him to stop. They got out of the car, walked up and down talking for a time and then re-entered the car.

Mr. Ind was about to start the car again when one of thp men struck him a terrible blow with a bottle. Half dozed, he h ’-ng across the wheel, while the man struck him again, shattering the bottle. He received deep gashes in his head, on the forehead, and in both cheeks.

Jumping out, the two young men dragged My. Ipd from his seat and kicked and punched him into total unconsciousness. Then they searched his pockets and took £lO 6s in notes and coins. With a piece of rope taken from the car they bound his hands behind lv • back and With two knotted handkerchisf improvised an effective gag. They then dragged his body away from the roadside into the thick scrub, where they pitched him ipto a clump of bushes. A moment later they were

speeding in the car along the road for ward Sydney. Though faint with loss of bipod and with his head paining ferribly, Mr. Ind gradually managed to reach' an upright positiop and slip the rppe from' flis wrists; Then he set out fpr- the bowser he had passed earlier in tl;e night, AL though the journey was only about a mile in length, it took him a long time to accomplish. The man on duty at the petrol station telephoned for assistance and gave the wounded man as much treatment as he could. Shortly afterwards Mr. W- E. Viah manager of the- Bathurst Skating Rink, who had been on a visit to Orange, got Mr. Ind into his ear and drove to °the Bathurst police station.

Mr. Ind’s clothes, covered in mud and blood, were hanging in ribbons. Blood from his wounds covered his face and hands and he could scarcely stand. A debtor treated him and he was then admitted to the hospital. Two men were arrested near Sydney the following morning.