Drifter charged with assaulting child

The mother of a child who was picked up in the street by a stranger last week on Euphrates Avenue has apparently reconsidered her request not to press charges and today police picked up twenty-eight year old Harold Smith for a second time. The mother came back to the police on Saturday and asked that action be taken after all, so this time Smith, who is unemployed and has no fixed address, was charged with common assault. The seven year old girl told police a man grabbed her as she was walking down the street around 1:30 on Monday afternoon. She screamed and a shopkeeper in the area yelled and ordered the man to put her down. Police say they have not received any report from the child, or the witness to indicate that there was an attempted rape in the bushes as carried in the Reporter newspaper this week.