Student is bailed over Greer attack

A student appeared in court yesterday charged with assaulting Germaine Greer, the feminist writer and academic.

Karen Burke, 19, of Wollaton near Nottingham, appeared at Harlow Magistrates Court in Essex accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assaulting and unlawfully imprisoning the Australian-born celebrity against her will.

Miss Burke, a first-year student of Italian, German and European Studies at Bath University, was remanded on conditional bail until 6 June.

Ms Greer, 61, was shocked but unhurt during the incident when the student arrived unannouced at her home near Saffron Walden, Essex, on the Monday after Easter Day.

Ms Greer, a professor of literature, became a household name after she wrote the feminist text, The Female Eunuch, which was published in 1970.