Man accused of five North Shore sex attacks

Photo / Martin Sykes

A 21-year-old man has been charged in connection with a series of sexual attacks on Auckland's North Shore.

Five attacks against five women were reported over five months this year. Each victim described the offender as an Asian male.

A man of Japanese origin was arrested in Browns Bay on Tuesday.

Although police would not reveal details of the five assaults, the Herald reported an incident in April in which a 21-year-old woman was attacked while getting into her car in Sunnynook. Detective Sergeant Scott Armstrong of the North Shore CIB said at the time that police were looking at the possibility of links to similar incidents in the nearby Forrest Hill area in December.

The incidents included a person described as of Asian descent approaching young women.

The 21-year-old woman who was attacked had caught the bus from the city to where her car was parked on the corner of Sycamore Drive and Sunnynook Rd. She was in the driver's seat with the door open and saw the attacker as she looked up.

"He moved as if to get into the compartment with her and she managed to sort of put her foot up and kick him, or push him away with her legs," Mr Armstrong said at the time.

"He put his hands up the inside of her leg but she managed to successfully push him away with her legs and he ran away."

The victim was shocked but unharmed.

The arrested man spent Tuesday night in custody pending a court appearance.

He appeared in the North Shore District Court yesterday on five charges of indecent assault.