A COWARDLY ASSAULT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15127, 23 January 1917, Page 5

A COWARDLY ASSAULT.

OLD LADY’S DESPERATE FIGHT,

A PUKEKOHE SENSATION

. To be set upon by a man while alone m a bouse was the unpleasant ordeal that an old lady named Mrs Leech (78 years of ago) underwent at 11.30 p.m. on Friday night, the 12th mst., says 4 ‘!n^ uc ? lar °f Saturday last. the scene of the occurrence was a house situated on a farm at Pukekoho w £ft, occupied solely by Mrs Leech. Ihe old lady was awakened to find a man entering her bedroom. She immediately jumped out of bed. and, with wcmderful presence of mind, grasped a pocket knife (with opened blade) from, a table alongside the bed. The man. made a terrific assault on tho woman grasping her by the arms. In a desperate effort to overthrow her, the old lady freed the hand with the knife, and dealt her assailant a blow on the handBlood flowed- freely from the wound, and the man' seeing it on the floor, ran to the front door, followed by the old lady, who cried as she went, “Murder!”' “Robber!” She unlocked the door and ordered her now cowed assaulter yut. The man lost no time in grasping (ho opportunity of escape, and the old lady remained on the verandah, calling for helix which arrived a little later—Messrs F. Rogers and W. McAnnally (two farmers), coming to. her assistance.

The man entered the building through a window at the rear of the premises, which he smashed iu for the purpose. The -matter was reported to the Pukekohe police, and a man named James Ridling was arrested by Constable Fcarnley (Wniuku) in Cook Street, Auckland on Thursday last and charged with assault. Ho was brought before the Pukekohc Court last Friday, and was remanded to appear again in Pukekoho on Thursday, in the meantime Ridling is safe in custody in Auckland.