Police release images of attempted kidnap suspects

Police have released images of two men suspected of being involved in an attempted kidnapping on Saturday in Uruti, New Plymouth. Photo / NZPA/NZ Police

Police have released images of two men suspected of trying to kidnap a 22-year-old community probation worker.

Three men allegedly tried to kidnap the young woman after she said she had been left alone by the roadside, 45km from New Plymouth, allegedly as punishment by a Corrections Department work party supervisor.

The woman, who had a brace on her leg, said she had an argument with her community probation work party boss after she told him her leg hurt and she needed to sit down.

Her crutches were in the probation van when the group drove off, leaving her behind.

As she waited for a friend to pick her up, a silver Nissan Skyline carrying three men pulled over and two of the men tried to get her in to their car.

A truck driver scared the men away and took the mother-of-two to the police station.

Police today released composite images of two of the kidnappers.

One of the men was described as dark-skinned and skinny with thick, short, straight hair and a tattoo on the left side of his neck. The other was described as a Maori or Pacific Islander with curly hair and tattoos along the length of one arm.

Police urged anybody with information to contact Waitara Police or Crimestoppers.

Meanwhile, the Department of Corrections is investigating why the woman was apparently left by her supervisor on the side of a road.

"Corrections' policy is to pick up offenders for community work from a service centre, transport them to the work site and then return them to the centre at the end of the day," Community Probation Service area manager Garth Newman said.

It was not routine practice for offenders completing community work in Taranaki, or any part of New Zealand, to be told to leave a work site and find their own way home, though Mr Newman said some chose to leave of their own accord or behaved in an unmanageable way.

"We were very concerned to learn that this offender was subject to the alleged crime after departing from the work site. We have commenced an inquiry to establish exactly what happened and what led to her leaving the group, and we will decide on a course of action once we have this information," Mr Newman said.

The woman said the truck driver who saved her was a hero.

"If it wasn't for him I could have been killed or raped," she said.

- NZPA