KEY POINTS:
A woman was left traumatised and with knife wounds after a sexual assault by a teenager early yesterday.
The 39-year-old victim told police she was sleeping on a couch in the lounge of a friend's house in Kamo, Whangarei, about 6am when she awoke to find a youth
on top of her.
The male, a 16-year-old who was known to the victim, was the only other occupant of the house at the time.
The woman said the teenager had a large knife and threatened her with it.
She told police she was dragged from the lounge into a bedroom where she was assaulted and cut with the knife on both sides of her upper body.
After a struggle, she escaped from the house and sought refuge with a neighbour.
The attacker then drove off in her car, a white 1988 Toyota Corolla, registration number SE5792, which was parked outside.
Police say they know who the European teenager is. He has not previously come to police attention.
"We've just got to find him," Inspector Paul Dimery of the Whangarei police said yesterday.
The woman's injuries were not life threatening but she had been "pretty traumatised". Mr Dimery would not say what sort of assault had occurred.
But a Whangarei Hospital spokeswoman said a woman aged 39 had come to the hospital about 7am yesterday and told staff she had been raped.
She was treated for superficial knife wounds and discharged later in the morning.
Mr Dimery said the attack was not a home invasion, as had been reported by some media.
The house is owned by a female friend of the victim, which is why, police say, thevictim was not sleeping in a bedroom, and the 16-year-old male was the only other occupant at the time of the incident.
Mr Dimery said that although the victim and her attacker were known to each other, there was "no relationship at all" between them.
He would not say what relationship there was between the teenage boy and the woman who owned the house.
Asked if the boy was the house owner's son, Mr Dimery would not comment.
Police have found the knife said to have been used in the attack and a team of 15 officers is working on the case.
Mr Dimery said the teenager was probably on his own when he left the Kamo address.
* Anyone who knows where the teenager or the white Toyota Corolla is should contact Mr Dimery through the Whangarei police station on (09) 430-4500.