Bystanders save woman from alleged attempted rape near Jill Meagher site

A GROUP of bystanders are being hailed for their daring rescue after spotting a sexual assault metres from where Jill Meagher was raped.

A GROUP of bystanders are being hailed for their daring rescue after spotting an alleged sexual assault metres from where Jill Meagher was raped.

Victoria Police wouldn’t comment on the matter when approached by news.com.au, but the alleged attack, on a bike path in Brunswick, in Melbourne’s inner north, occurred on Sunday night approximately 300 metres from where Ms Meagher was attacked in September 2012.

Fairfax Media alleges a man was riding home along a bike path in the area when he stumbled upon a bike near Anstey train station.

When he heard a woman screaming, he stopped to investigate and asked if the woman was OK.

He allegedly saw the woman wrestled to the ground as she screamed a man was trying to rape her.

Caught, the alleged attacker fled the scene but the witness followed on his bike, joined by two other good samaritans.

When the witnesses caught up with the alleged rapist, he punched the man on the bike, knocking him off.

It took the two other men giving chase to get the attacker on the ground.

“We all tackled him to the ground and he was so strong, it took three [of us] to hold him down,” the man on the bike told Fairfax.

It took four police officers 15-minutes to arrive at the scene on foot, and half an hour to take the man away in cuffs.

“This guy was ranting and raving. This guy was not with it,” the witness said.

The victim was aged in her early 30s, according to witnesses.

Police wouldn’t provide comment on the victim or how bystanders should act in future scenarios.

Ms Meagher, 29, had been out with workmates and was walking to her Brunswick home when she was raped and killed by parolee Adrian Bayley.

The random attack in the early hours of September 22, so close to her home, deeply affected people across Melbourne, across the nation, and across the globe in Ms Meagher’s homeland, Ireland.