The gang rape occurred on 9 September 1886. Sixteen-year-old Mary Jane Hicks had been educated at the Bathurst convent school, then worked as a domestic servant at Katoomba, and at a hotel and private houses in Sydney. While walking to a city employment registry, she was offered a lift by Charles Sweetman, the driver of a hansom cab, who instead drove her in his cab to what is now the Moore Park area, then an isolated piece of bushland in the suburb of Waterloo and called Mount Rennie. He attempted to molest her in the cab but she screamed for help. Two young men approached and took her out of the cab, purporting to save her from disgrace. At this point, Sweetman departed with his cab.