Writer Greer Held Captive Over Easter

Feminist author Germaine Greer was held hostage over Easter weekend by a female student who broke into her home, Essex police said. Police received a call shortly after 10 p.m. Monday complaining of an intruder at Greer’s isolated mansion in Great Chesterford in southern England. Karen Burke, 19, of Bath was arrested at the mansion and charged with assault and unlawful imprisonment, an official said. Greer reportedly was badly shaken but was not injured during the incident. She was tied up and her home was vandalized with a fireplace poker, said police, who were alerted by three of Greer’s friends who had been invited to dinner and heard shouting from inside the house. Greer, 61, wrote a column for next Saturday’s Daily Telegraph in which she said she had felt uneasy about strangers.