THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 14, 1995 TAG: 9507140476
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
A few years ago, a gentle man who needed help was given a job at the Salvation Army shelter in Elizabeth City. Since then, he has always been ready with food and a clean bed to help transients down on their luck late at night in a strange town.
But just before midnight Wednesday, he ran out of luck himself.
He was bound, beaten, stabbed, sexually assaulted and robbed.
Early Thursday, a 35-year-old farm laborer who had been evicted earlier in the week from the shelter was charged in the attack.
The victim had been bound hand-and-foot by a long electrical extension cord. He managed to summon help and was taken to Albemarle Hospital.
The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star do not publish the names of sexual assault victims.
At the hospital, police were given a description of the attacker, and Chief of Detectives W.O. Leary said his officers arrested a suspect two hours after the assault while the suspect rode a bike a few blocks from the shelter in the 600 block of Hughes Blvd.
The suspect, Robert Henry White Jr. of Philadelphia, was held in the Tri-County Jail under $85,000 bond on charges of assault with intent to kill and first-degree forcible sex offense, Leary said.
Police said White also was being questioned about several recent local robberies, as well as the theft of $35 and personal equipment from the Salvation Army employee.
Leary said the victim had ordered his assailant out of the shelter on Monday because he thought the man was trying to remove tools from a truck left at the Salvation Army building by a contractor doing renovations.
``Apparently, the suspect managed to get into the building unnoticed Wednesday night and the attack, robbery, and sexual assault followed,'' Leary said.
``He hit (the man) and tied up his hands and feet with the cord and then stabbed the victim with a knife'' before assaulting him, Leary said.
The detective chief praised half a dozen police officers who quickly formed a team to hunt down the suspect.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL ASSAULT ARREST ASSAULT by CNB