"Aggravated Assault on a Sister of Mercy"

On March 19 of 1870, The Illustrated Police News published an article called, “Aggravated Assault on a Sister of Mercy”. It was a story that was reported in the newspaper’s fourth edition of the previous week’s news. The article transcribed a special meeting that was held at the police court in Middleton Cheney, Banbury, where Alexander McGregor was being charged with “assault with intent to commit a rape”. The victim and subject of the article, Sister Frances Colls, went into detail about the assault. She was on the train heading home to Banbury, when a drunk man came into her carriage and began to bother her. He kissed her hand and described the assault, which the newspaper respectfully censored. After calling for help, the train stopped at a station and a guard came to Sister Colls’ aid and ushered her to a different compartment. The guard, station master, and engine driver gave evidence that supported her claim. The police later found McGregor at the hotel he was residing at and after complications, they brought him to the station where he is being committed for trial. 

The article was a very different one for me to read, since the past ones, the victim had a lack of a narrative. However, in this case, the victim is the survivor and is the sole person to tell her story. This article fits best in the #MeToo movement because it is about a woman, who starts her story about her assault by telling the people at the police court, her background. Sister Colls is a single woman, forty years old, living in Bungay, Norfolk and part of the House of Mercy in Ditchingham. She gave precise details about her encounter with McGregor and reported her assault to the authorities immediately. It’s an article that tends to get lost in the swamp of reporters attempting to sell the best cover story that is sensationalizing. Sister Colls’ story is very much real and she was given the opportunity to tell it, given the unfortunate circumstances. It is a trend that many Victorian women voices’ get lost and their narratives are degraded, but Sister Colls makes sure that hers is not forgotten. She instead makes sure that McGregor’s narrative is erased, as he is the perpetrator, the assaulter. She does not even name him, instead calling him “Prisoner,” foreknowing that his end is awaiting him. Sister Colls is one of the many women who faced fear straight-on and an addition to many voices of the movement for female empowerment.