Mount Rennie Rape Case - The Incident

The Incident

The rape occurred on 9 September 1886. Sixteen-year-old Mary Jane Hicks was offered a lift by a man named Charles Sweetman. She had been educated at a convent school and had only recently arrived in Sydney. Sweetman diverted the cab to Moore Park area, then an isolated piece of bushland in Sydney's suburbs. He attempted to rape her in the cab but she screamed for help. A group of around twenty men known as "larrikins" answered the call. They surrounded the cab and knocked on the door. They persuaded Hicks to leave with them. Sweetman fled in his cab and left Hicks to her fate. However, the group of men proved not to be rescuers, but took her further away.

Various men held her down and took turns to rape her. Hicks fell into and out of consciousness during the ordeal. Some men attempted to rescue her but they were beaten back by the gang with bricks, stones and bottles. At one stage during the attack, Hicks attempted to drown herself. One author states that the larrikins also mutilated her, but this is not reflected in any other commentary of the incident.

Police found her at five the next morning in a state of exhaustion and extreme terror. She claimed to have been raped by eight to twelve men. After a police search, she identified her assailants later that day. Fifteen men were arrested.