Roast Busters: Police tight-lipped on progress

Roast Busters Joseph Parker, left, and Beraiah Hales triggered the scandal.

Police remain tight-lipped on the progress of the Roast Busters underage sex investigation, but want to assure the public they are doing all they can for the alleged victims.

The Waitemata Child Protection team have been investigating a group of teenage boys known as the Roast Busters since a 13-year-old girl made a formal complaint against them in late 2011.

Roast Busters is a group of predominantly West Auckland youths. Members, including Joseph Parker and Beraiah Hales, bragged online about having sex with drunk and underage girls.

In November the Herald revealed that Tristan Burrow, the son of police Constable Craig Burrow, was associated with the group in 2011. He was interviewed by police and co-operated with the investigation, but has had no involvement since.

Police botched the handling of the publicity around the case and repeatedly gave wrong information to media about the number of victims involved.

Commissioner Peter Marshall conceded his staff could have been "sharper" and one of the country's most senior female cops Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus was sent to take over the case.

Shortly after she announced the formation of a multi-agency team dubbed Operation Clover, which would work together on the Roast Busters case.

Ms Malthus has refused to say exactly what that team are doing to resolve the case. But she told the Herald that the investigation had continued over Christmas and New Year.

"It is a comprehensive and lengthy investigation and the focus for the joint agency Operation Clover team continues to be on speaking to young people and their parents," she said.

"It is of the utmost importance that the privacy, health and wellbeing of these young people is strictly upheld. We appreciate the high level of public interest in this case, however, as is routine with an investigation of this nature, we will not discuss any operational aspects and no further comment will be made at this time."

Anyone with information about the Roast Busters case, or any victim that wants to make a complaint to police can contact the Operation Clover team on 0800 OP CLOVER (0800 672 568).