Alston Herald, and East Cumberland Advertiser. — 1879-09-13 (Alston, Cumbria, England)

OUTRAGE ON A DARLINGTON LADY.  On Friday, there was a large gathering at the Darlington Police Court, on account of the case of outrage on Miss Allan coining oo.—Mr Barron prosecuted, and stated that in three cases the offence was only garden breaking, and for this offence John Ibbotson, Stephen Purtal, and Charles Foster were each fined 10s and costs, and 6cl damage, or a fortnight's imprisonmeat. At the request of Mr Barron, Andrew O'Brien, who was of the party, was dismissed, he having befriended Miss Allan on two or three occasions when attacked both by Meehan and Lang. Mr Barron stated that it was not intended to prefer more than the charge of ordinary assault agaiwt James Lang, for although he had at length forgotten himself so as to throw Miss Allan down, he had protected her up to a certain point.— Lang was committed for two months.—lhe case, which lasted a long time, was that of a charge of rape against John Meehan. Mr Barron prosecuted, and Mr Edward Wooler defended. Miss Allan, who attended, was accommodated with a seat in Court, being still weak from the prisoner's violence.  Ann Allan deposed that she lived at Darling ton, and was a spinster. On Friday afternoo. 29th ult., about two o'clock she went out in her grounds and looked into the graden and saw eight or nine persons; one man, and the rest looked like boys. They were stealing fruit. She said, "What are you all doing there?" twice over. They all stood up, and ran out at the top of the garden, and they ran towards the carriage gate. The prisoner slackened his pace on the carriage walk. She followed to the carriage gate, and prisoner was holding down the sneck of the carriage gate. He was eating the gooseberries at the time. He appeared to have a pocket full, She said, "You must be a very audacious person to steal my gooseberries and eat them before my face, but I will have you all up before the magistrates." He left loose of the gate, and she went through, prisoner standing near. Witness then described the outrageous conduct of the prisoner, who first exposed himself, then seized hold of her and threw her down with great violence on the hedge back and accomplished his purpose. She screamed " Murder" as soon as she could get her breath, four times over. He said, "If you scream again, I'll do for you." Some of the lads shouted, "The police are coining." O'Brien came up with Lang and they palled him off her. Meehan rather went away, and then came back and disturbed her dress. The other boys came up and pulled prisoner away again. Prisoner said he would repeat his offence as often as he liked. O'Brien and she believed Lang also said they would not allow him to do it. Upon this prisoner doubled his fist and struck some very severe blows at O'Brien. Lang struck at Meehan, and a scuffle took place between the three, With the assistance of O'Brien and Lang, she went towards the house. She noticed just after two boys run past the stables in Nunnery-lane. O'Brien and Lang ran after them. Prisoner then jumped over the fence from the Nunnery land. She had not time to get out of the way, and be came and threw her down with a dreadful crash on the pavement, and behaved in a very indecent manner. She shouted to Lang and O'Brien, "For God's sake come back here is that villain again." Prisoner then ran off. [Witness was requested to look round and see if she could identity the man who assaulted her. She fixed on Meehan and said, "That is the villain."] She immediately after told aiackman to go for the police, and complained to him of being ill-used. She told two boys also to go, and afterwards told a man named Clarkson. It was not till the evening that Inspector Scott arrived, when she told him what that taken place, and gave a description of the prisoner and the lads.—Mr Wooler cross-examined the witness, who denied that she had threatened to shoot the prisoner, and that he had thrown her down in self-defence.  Andrew O'Brien, John Joseph Irwin, Thomas Banks, George Clarkson, Maria Irwin, and Inspector Scott were called, and gave evidence. Mr George Middlemas, surgeon, proved that on Wednesday he examined Miss Allan, and found bruises On her. She appeared shaken, and was suffering from shocks. Prisoner, who pleaded guilty, was committed for trial, bail being refused.