Police are doing too little to find girl, mother says

A distraught mother is worried that police are not doing enough to trace her 12-year-old daughter, who has been missing from the Weymouth care and protection centre for more than a week.

Georgina Rosieur and another 12-year-old girl punched a hole in the ceiling of the Child, Youth and Family Services (Cyfs) home and escaped over a barbed-wire fence in the early hours of last Wednesday morning.

The other girl returned to the home at 11pm last Thursday night and told police that she and Georgina had stayed with a man who threw them out at 10pm that night. The two girls argued and separated.

Georgina's mother, Carline Nisbett of Mt Wellington, said police had failed to put out an alert about the case until last Thursday because of a fax-machine fault on the Wednesday.

She has rung Cyfs every day since then, but said she had not been able to find anyone willing to tell her what was being done to find her daughter.

She said Georgina had been harmed when she escaped from another Cyfs home at Massey in the past.

"I am so worried about my daughter," said Ms Nisbett.

"She's been in Cyfs care since she was 10.

"She's been expelled from two schools in their care. She's run away six times. Now she's run away again.

"I think it should be out in the open. There's no reason for her not to come home."

Manurewa youth and community sergeant Marko Radojkovich confirmed that a fax machine fault had delayed the initial alert for Georgina, but said he had since followed up several leads without success.

"We are very keen to hear from anyone who could assist us with any information at all regarding any sightings of her or any other background information," he said.

"While we have no knowledge of any specific fears for her safety, we are obviously very concerned for the safety of a 12-year-old whose whereabouts are unknown.

"I appeal to the general public to pass on to police any information, as that will be the key to locating Georgina."

Counties-Manukau Police spokeswoman Angeline Barlow said police did not seek media publicity about the case earlier because they were regularly asked to look for runaway girls.

"You can't imagine how many runaways we have in any given week," she said. "Normally the media don't care."

Cyfs northern regional manager Marion Heeney said: "We are concerned for the wellbeing and safety of this girl.

"The children and young people we deal with often come from difficult backgrounds and have complex needs, which can contribute to them running away or engaging in risky behaviours."

Mr Radojkovich said that if anyone had seen Georgina, they should ring 111 immediately.