Praised at the Old Bailey for her " great and gallant " action , Woman Police Sergeant Ethel Bush , clubbed over the head by a man when she was acting as a decoy , enjoys the seaside air on the West Pier , Hove . She is recuperating here from the attack, which necessitated eleven stitches being inserted in her head. She and Woman Constable Parratt volunteered to walk along a footpath in Croydon where women had been constantly assaulted . Labourer William George Barnett hit her with a 3-foot long tree branch . For assaults on six women he was sentenced to ten years' jail. Sergeant Bush is staying at the police convalescent home in Hove . 21 May 1955