Christchurch father shocked by brazenness of man who attempted to abduct his daughter from Guy Fawkes event

With a crowd of thousands, plenty of security and police, a Christchurch dad had no doubts his daughter would be safe attending a packed-out Guy Fawkes event and he certainly didn’t expect her to nearly be abducted from it.

The dad, who the Herald has agreed has not to name, said a man approached his 14-year-old daughter at the Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular on Saturday night.

“[She] bent down to tie up her shoe lace and as she stood up, she felt someone tug her arm and initially thought it was one of her friends,” he said.

“When she looked up and realised it wasn’t one of her friends she pulled her arm away and he grabbed her arm again and started to walk off with her... forcefully.”

The girl told her family and police that the man was walking away with her towards the exit for around six seconds and she went into panic mode, experiencing blurriness and echoing.

In a final yank, she managed to pull away from the man and screamed as she ran to business tents.

People at the tents calmed her down and then her friends and their family members took her to report the incident to police on site.

The dad said he received a phone call from police and was told to meet them and his daughter at the Rolleston police station where they made official statements.

“The police were amazing. They were really supportive, they were really friendly, they looked after her because she was quite shaken and hysterical and scared,” he said.

“For me, it was the brazenness of it. There was 14,000 people there and there was police and security and whoever it was still tried to do what they did, that was the most shocking thing.”

A police spokesperson confirmed they received a report about the incident and are making inquiries.

Now the dad has been further shocked after posting details about the incident to a local Facebook community page and getting responses from others who have recently faced a similar situation.

“If this was an isolated incident, you think, well okay someone tried something stupid but it’s more worrying that more and more people are now commenting on it saying ‘I wonder if this is the same guy that tried this with my son or my daughter within the last month or so’ – that’s a bit more worrying for me,” he said.

He said he wants people to be aware that situations that might look like a father trying to get his adolescent to come home could in fact be an abduction, but didn’t blame anyone for not stepping in to help the girl.

“Somebody somewhere must have seen something and thought ‘it’s nothing, I’m not going to get involved when actually it could have been a lot worse’,” he said.

“I’ve been in that situation before where I’ve thought it’s not my business.”

When approached by the Herald, President of the Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular committee Chris O’Brien said he was not aware the incident had occurred.

O’Brien said security had been increased by 20 per cent compared with 2020′s event and that they work closely with emergency services to ensure a safe event.

He said the committee will contact police about the incident and will identify areas for prevention for the 2023 event.