Disapproving Look On Bus Led To Bashing

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday January 15, 2009

Arjun Ramachandran

A WOMAN who cast a disapproving look at a group of rowdy passengers on her bus was grabbed by the hair and dragged off, before being robbed, punched and kicked on a busy highway, police said.

The 37-year-old woman, who was travelling south of Wollongong on Tuesday, had been alone on the bus with a group of three men and a woman, Chief Inspector Ken McDonald from Wollongong police said yesterday.

A look the passenger cast at them had caused the woman in the group to start abusing her, he said.

The woman complained to the driver, then sat down near the front.

A short time later, when the bus stopped outside the Figtree Hotel, the woman from the group grabbed the 37-year-old by the hair.

"They've dragged her off the bus and towelled her up," Mr McDonald said.

"They took her handbag off her, they ripped off her top, leaving her topless, punched and kicked her and ran off towards a nearby caravan park."

He did not believe the woman had needed to be taken to a hospital, or know any more details about her, but suspected she was a local as she had been using local public transport.

Police believe the attack was prompted purely by the words exchanged on the bus. "It probably tells you something about the calibre of the people who set upon her," Mr McDonald said.

Police have CCTV footage from the bus and from nearby shops. "We haven't positively identified [the four] but we have a fair idea who they are," Mr McDonald said.

The attack happened in daylight at a busy intersection, near a takeaway store, Chicko's. Police have asked witnesses to come forward.

A staff member at Chicko's said he saw the woman being beaten up and tried to stop it.

"The three guys warned me off . . . they [swore at me] not to [help her]," he said.

"I'm not a small person, but I wasn't going to approach three guys in a rage by myself, so I went back inside to get some help and when I came back out it was over."

The woman had got back on the bus after the attack, he said.

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

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