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A 13-year-old boy attacked while waiting for a bus home is so afraid of being targeted again he is seeing a psychologist to deal with the trauma.
The youngster was with four friends on the afternoon of April 14 in New Lynn, West Auckland when they were set upon for no reason outside the train station.
It was the second attack by the same group, carried out less than half an hour after two members of the public were assaulted at the same station.
Waitematā West prevention manager, Inspector Kelly Farrant, said police were investigating both incidents - the first reported about 1.30pm and the second at 1.50pm.
“In the first incident, two victims were assaulted before being threatened by a group of up to seven youths at the station. In a second incident ... two other victims were assaulted, threatened and had food taken by the group.”
The members of the public assaulted in the first incident managed to get away without serious injuries.
A split eyebrow and a bruised jaw
“We are keeping an open mind to both incidents involving the same group of young people and we are still awaiting any available CCTV footage of the earlier incident.”
Farrant said they were following positive lines of inquiry in identifying members of the group, all of whom are young people.
Police are investigating two separate attacks, within half an hour of each other, outside the New Lynn Train Station.
The 13-year-old’s mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said she received a frantic call from her son asking her to pick him and his friends up following the attack.
“He and [one of his friends] both got hit twice in the head. He had a split eyebrow and his friend had a bruised jaw.
“I took [my son] to the doctor just to make sure he didn’t have a concussion ... the next day. He did have a headache when he moved his head around.”
The mother said when she arrived, two Auckland Transport security guards had taken her son and his friends into a room in the train station to keep them safe. Her son would tell her later that a bus driver had come to their aid after seeing the attack.
She was shocked to realise the group involved were still at the station and still calling out abusive threats at her son and friends through a glass window.
Her presence did not seem to faze the group - who then started to make intimidating gestures towards her. She guessed they were aged between 11 and 14.
A 13-year-old boy attacked outside the New Lynn Train Station is now afraid to catch any form of public transport. Photo / File
“I started to take photos of the youths on my phone while they swore at me. [They] then approached me inside the station and threatened to ‘f*** them up in front of me’ - referring to my son and his friends.”
The woman and security guards called police at least twice, but were told they were not available to attend the scene. They were instead advised to go to the police station to give a statement - which the woman and her son later did.
The group involved eventually left after they realised the woman was on the phone to police.
The woman said after speaking with police, she was told the group was known to officers in the area. According to the Auckland Transport security staff at the station that day, they were also known to frequent the station.
Police have told the family to keep their son away from the area for a while - something the mother thinks is unfair, not only to her son and his friends, but to anyone who needs to catch the bus or train.
“My son’s really scared. He thinks that if they know which bus he gets or what school he’s at - or if they can find him on social media - they’ll target him.
Auckland Transport’s monitoring system
“I’d like to think that wouldn’t happen, but then the police are also like: ‘Don’t go around that area’.”
But that was no solution to the problem, she said, especially given many students were now back catching the bus or train to or from school after the holidays.
Two separate attacks were reported near the New Lynn Train Station on Sunday, April 14. Photo / File
The mother also contacted Auckland Transport to report the incident and ask whether there was anything more they could do to boost security around its train stations.
An Auckland Transport spokeswoman confirmed security guards intervened and broke up a group of youths assaulting a male that day. No extra security staff have been posted at the New Lynn station since and no further reports have been received, she said.
AT has CCTV security cameras through their main facilities, and footage can later be passed on to police. Through the Auckland Transport Operations Centre and the surveillance team, locations were also monitored to detect “known offenders” moving around the network.
“Atoc can mobilise security patrols in response to any issues or escalate to police. If the activity is reported directly - via help points - then live public address announcements can be made.
“Behaviours usually change once perpetrators are alerted to the fact someone is watching - responding with security guards or escalating to police for their response,” she said.
Vaimoana Mase is the Pasifika editor for the Herald’s Talanoa section, sharing stories from the Pacific community. She won junior reporter of the year at the then Qantas Media Awards in 2010 and picked up the best opinion writing award at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.
