KEY POINTS:
Wellington police believe they are close to making arrests in sex attacks cases that a recently established squad has been investigating
Operation Safe was set up in April to look at eight crimes committed in the same 3km area of the capital within the past 18 months. The attacks included two rapes and an assault: most were "blitz" attacks from behind on women aged 19-22 and many may have been stalked beforehand.
No arrests have yet been made as a result of Operation Safe but Detective Sergeant Damian Murphy said good progress was being made. The criminal profiling unit and other expert helpers had been drafted in as required to help, affording officers the luxury of focusing solely on trying to solve those crimes.
"It was a particularly busy period when most of these offences took place," Mr Murphy said.
"The investigating officers were inundated with other investigations and it's only when you've got a much emptier plate that you are able to devote more time and energy to investigating them properly.
"We've been able to pursue lines of inquiry that we otherwise wouldn't have had the time to drill down on."
Mr Murphy and his four colleagues think they are very close to solving several of the cases.
The victim of a rape in the Ngaio Gorge area had helped police piece together a high quality identikit photo of her attacker.
Police also have a full DNA profile of the man who carried out the attack in June last year.
"The hope is that someone is able to give us the correct name because that will solve that case," Mr Murphy said.
"With a full DNA profile, it's only a matter of putting the reference sample against the full profile and we can solve it."
Likewise with an assault a month later in the inner city suburb of Mount Cook. Police have a distinctive skull-covered bandana used in an attempt to strangle a 22-year-old student and Mr Murphy is convinced someone will recognise the bandana.
"We've been happy with the response to a media appeal about the fabric," Mr Murphy said.
"That investigation is continuing."
Although none of the eight cases are solved yet, police believe three are unrelated and the other five are probably the work of two separate offenders.
"There have been no prosecutions to date, although we are hopeful there will be," Mr Murphy said.
* Auckland City police's adult sex crimes unit, operating for about a year, has already had some good results.
Last month, Pop Tanupou E'Moala Aholelei pleaded guilty to a 2001 rape after giving a routine DNA sample after being interviewed by police after a minor traffic incident. His sample matched one kept on file after the 2001 attack.
Child sex crimes are investigated by child abuse teams in each of the city's policing districts.
