Police to sex victim: Make your own way here

The police 111 service is under renewed scrutiny after telling a young victim of sexual assault to make her own way to the police station when she called on the emergency line.

Police last night said the 22-year-old woman did not tell the 111 operator she had been sexually attacked though they conceded they "may have let a victim down on this occasion".

The incident, which has come to light just four months after the disappearance of 111 caller Iraena Asher at Piha, was the subject of intense questioning in Parliament yesterday.

Police Minister George Hawkins said last night he found the police request to make her own way to the station "totally unacceptable" and the matter had been referred to the Police Complaints Authority.

Police later said the woman did not tell the operator she had been sexually assaulted or raped but said she had been "touched up" four hours earlier, and made the call from a street.

But close relative Ken Mair said she had been in a state of shock and had had to be carried part of the way to the police station by her boyfriend.

And after the initially defensive stance by the police on a highly charged political issue, they conceded a few hours later that they "may have let a victim down on this occasion".

Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia raised the matter in Parliament yesterday in the midst of the second day of intense questioning of Mr Hawkins over the type of crime that has the greatest fear factor and the response of traffic police to emergencies.

Tariana Turia: "What response does the minister have for a young woman who was raped in Hamilton two weeks ago, who phoned the 111 phone line and was advised that as the address she gave was not far from the police station, she could walk around there and make a statement, rather than have the police come to the house where the perpetrator was still present?"

Waikato Acting District Commander Superintendent Pieri Munro said through a spokeswoman last night: "The initial inquiries suggest that the true nature or seriousness of the events may not have been conveyed adequately on that call."

The woman had not told the operator she had been sexually assaulted or raped but said she had been "touched up" and it had happened four hours before.

The suspect was interviewed immediately and the police were awaiting forensic tests before proceeding.

The victim was a 22-year-old woman here from Australia with her boyfriend.

"We haven't received any complaints from her or anyone related to her about it. In fact she was very grateful and thankful for our help - as she told the detectives," a spokeswoman said.

The call was taken at the northern communications centre, already the subject of an inquiry after the mishandling of a 111 call by Iraena Asher from Piha last October. The police operator sent a taxi but it never arrived and she has not been seen again.

But Ken Mair, a close relative of the complainant, did not accept the explanation. He said the reason she had been outside when she made the call was that she had been trying to find the address of the place so the police could send a car.

She and her boyfriend spent 20 to 30 minutes walking to the police station and the boyfriend had had to carry her part of the way because she was in such a state of shock.

Mr Mair was called on by family members and drove to Hamilton to attend another interview the police had with the young woman the next day.

The interviewing officer had agreed that the treatment of her had been "shoddy".

She had been at a party at the house and she had met the alleged offender the night before.

Mr Mair said last night the relative was back in Australia with her family.

The later statement by Superintendent Munro said: "Police decisions appear to have been made on the information available to police which suggests that, at the time the victim called 111, the incident was four hours old.

"I can promise that we will do everything we possibly can to get justice for this victim."

An indecent assault complaint was under criminal investigation.

It has been an intense start to the parliamentary year for Mr Hawkins.

He was grilled over police failure to arrest Tuhoe activist Tame Iti for shooting a flag (he has since been charged and appears in court in Whakatane today) and this week was subjected to an Opposition attack over traffic police's response to emergencies and his reference to a survey he claimed showed that women were more concerned about speeding cars than being attacked in their homes.

The survey does not refer to speeding among the 12 crimes it cited but being "in a traffic accident caused by a drunk driver".

Sequence of events

* Woman dials 111 at 8.04am on January 27 from a callbox on the corner of Massey and Campbell Sts in Hamilton.

* Female operator asks if she can make her way to the West Hamilton station.

* Walks for 20 to 30 minutes with boyfriend and is interviewed about 9.15am. Later the woman has a medical at Hamilton Central.