Mum with pram attacked in tunnel

Police want to speak to this youth in connection with the assault at Glen Innes station. Photo / Supplied

A teenage mother pushing her baby daughter's pram was sexually assaulted in a train station tunnel as her friend tried to fight the attacker off.

Police will today post flyers featuring closed-circuit television images of the offender in the November 8 incident at Glen Innes train station.

The mother, 16, and her friend, 15, were walking through the station's tunnel from Felton Mathew Ave about 5.30pm when a youth entered the passage from a platform exit and began following closely behind them.

They sped up in an attempt to lose him but he caught up to them and put his hand between the 16-year-old's legs while she was pushing the pram and tried to undo her trousers.

He then pushed her up against the wall and and tried to kiss her before pushing her to the ground.

She got to her feet but the youth again pinned her against the wall.

Detective Constable Mark Pickles of the Glen Innes CIB said the girl's friend grabbed the youth's arm and hair in an attempt to pull him off.

"The hair-pull jolted him and she's looked at him, he's looked at her, and he's weighed up his options and then he's gapped it because they've been screaming throughout the whole process."

The youth exited the tunnel the way he went in and got back on to the train platform.

The victims escaped through the other side of the tunnel on Taniwha St and told a security officer what had happened. He called the police.

Mr Pickles said a police officer who had worked in the area for about 20 years had seen the youth in the CCTV footage and believed he was a local.

The youth is described as a Maori or Pacific Islander in his late teens or 20s, of medium build, with dark, curly or frizzy hair.

He was wearing a green and orange, wide-brimmed "gangsta" style hat, a green and orange or green and blue button-up shirt, which was possibly chequered, and dark three-quarter-length jeans.

* Anyone with information about the offender is asked to contact the Glen Innes police station on (09) 524-1925.