"Have mercy on me," Alfrey Noyce begged. "I can't remember doing what I was supposed to have done." What he had 'done' was to terrify a woman walking alone on her way home in the dark.

Lymington widow Mary Fudge had been visiting her elderly mother in Buckland Road and as she was passing the Barfields, a man suddenly sprang out from a hedge on her right hand side and forcefully grabbed her.

He then punched her hard on both sides of her face and taking hold of her by the waist, dragged her across the road where he thew her into a ditch before falling on top of her.

She screamed "murder" and several people rushed to her rescue.

Less than 48 hours later on February 7, 1909, Noyce, a 62-year-old gardener from Brockenhurst, appeared before Lymington magistrates, charged with assault.

"He was a complete stranger to me," said the victim, recalling her ordeal. "I do not think the man was drunk or he would have been unable to jump out like that."

However, carpenter Charles Cheater, who had helped pull Noyce away, did not agree. "I heard her scream and rushed to her assistance. I believe he was drunk because he afterwards fell into a brook."

Noyce was detained by Pc Butler who told the court that after sobering up, he pleaded: "Have mercy on me for once. Spare me and deliver me once more."

The gardener, who had been detained in custody since his arrest, pleaded guilty.

Asked by the chairman, Alderman Hayward, who was also the town's mayor, for an explanation, Noyce simply replied: "I have no recollection of what I did. I was drunk at the time."

Hayward told him that as he was not "quite answerable" for his actions, the magistrates had decided to take a lenient view of the case and not jail him. Instead, they imposed a fine and costs totalling 15s 6d and gave him a week to pay.

Noyce replied: "Thank you very much."

The Bench also dealt with the case of Ernest Ingram who had been summoned for discharging a catapult. The youth, who lived in Bashley, denied using it, saying he had only been showing it off to a friend.

He was fined just 1s with 9d costs after Superintendent Wakeford revealed the police had received a series of complaints of damage caused by such weapons.