BRIDGEWATER, MA (WHDH) – A Bridgewater woman is talking about how she was able to fend off a man who police say attacked her on Father’s Day, sexually assaulted her and tried to kidnap her.
Gordon J. Lyons, 57, of Bridgewater, covered his face with a sheet Tuesday as he was arraigned from his hospital bed on charges including kidnapping, indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older, and assault and battery. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
Lyons stopped his vehicle and tried to force the 37-year-old woman into his car. The woman, whose name has not been released, fought back and a neighbor came to her aid.
The woman told 7News that she immediately noticed Lyons’ car because it slowed down as it passed her on Pleasant Street around 7:30 a.m. When Lyons got out, she said she knew right away that he was coming for her.
“I put my arms up because I didn’t know what he was doing,” she said. “The most important thing I wanted to do was not let him get me in that vehicle.”
The woman explained that Lyons grabbed her by the forearms and wrists, and pulled her towards his car.
“He chased me, grabbed me by the arm and pulled me toward him,” she said. “I struggled. We fell to the ground. He grabbed my left breast. I kept screaming and kicking at him.”
Sunscreen may have helped the woman slip away from the attacker’s grasp.
“I make my own sunscreen,” she said. “It’s slippery.”
Neighborhood resident Donald Prohovich, 84, noticed the commotion and believes his presence scared Lyons away.
“I asked the guy, ‘what are you doing?’ He got up and started running back to his car,” Prohovich told 7News. “He happened to see me. That’s when he bolted.”
Lyons sped off and crashed a few miles away, according to police, but the woman was able to snap a photo of the vehicle’s plate.
Lyons was arrested a short time later after he was involved in a motor vehicle accident on the northbound side of Route 24 in West Bridgewater.
He is being held on $100,000 bail.
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