Police investigating the section of creek and walkway in West Auckland's Sunnyvale where Wednesday's attack took place. Photo / Supplied / Joshua Young
Police investigating the section of creek and walkway in West Auckland's Sunnyvale where Wednesday's attack took place. Photo / Supplied / Joshua Young
WARNING: Distressing content
A 15-year-old schoolgirl was bundled out of her home at knifepoint by an intruder who chased her through suburban streets before recapturing and attacking her in a West Auckland reserve.
The family of the teenager - who was still in her pyjamas when she was forced from her Sunnyvale home on Wednesday morning - is shaken by the calculated and brutal assault. They are fearful the man, who was clad in black and wearing leather gloves, had been casing their home and that he will strike again.
The girl’s mum said her traumatised daughter told her the attacker repeatedly threatened her life and that she was held captive at a creek in a nearby reserve for up to seven hours.
The mum said that during the abduction, her daughter was made to take a pill and smoke an illegal substance before being violently flung to the ground and indecently assaulted.
The intruder is still being hunted by police, who are appealing for anyone who witnessed suspicious activity around Parma Place, Chislehurst St, Newham Place and Bloom Cres on Wednesday morning to contact them.
An earlier forensic examination took place at the scene, but police say they will remain in the area over the weekend, speaking to residents and seeking security footage.
The mum heaped praise on four boys biking on the Oratia Stream Path who raised the alarm when her distressed daughter scrambled up a steep bank in a dishevelled state after her attacker abruptly fled.
“She looked in a pretty bad way. Her clothes were ripped and she had mud in her hair and face, and she was shaking.
“They saw her coming up out of the creek asking, ‘Help me, please, help me’.”
Police are now looking at CCTV footage and have examined the reserve and the girl’s home. Photo / Alex Burton
She said her daughter was so traumatised she was not able to eat and too scared to return to the family home. Other relatives were now reluctant to keep living at the property.
“She is not well. She doesn’t want to be here and we don’t want to be in the house anymore.”
The mum said the nightmare ordeal started around 7am when her daughter heard a tapping sound on the front door.
After hearing the ranch slider open, she discovered a tall, muscular and knife-wielding man inside their hall.
“He carried her out of the house, still telling her to be quiet while threatening to kill her.”
The mum said her daughter managed to squirm out of his grasp and make a run for it in the opposite direction of the family home, where everyone was still asleep.
But the harsh asphalt on her sock-clad feet proved too painful. She slowed to a walk and was recaptured from behind “in a bear-like” grasp by her attacker in a nearby street.
Despite the girl screaming for help, he dragged his victim towards the creek by Sunnyvale train station.
The mum told the Herald that at this point, her daughter turned to her faith, believing she was moments from death.
The man continued to threaten her, making her take a white pill and forcing her to smoke a joint before making her remove articles of clothing.
The mother said that before some of the most harrowing aspects of the assault took place, her daughter told her attacker: “If you’re going to kill me, kill me now”.
She said the effect of the drugs caused her to be “out of it”.
However, her daughter recounted being thrown around like a ragdoll and instructed to perform an indecent act on the man.
She eventually scrambled to safety some seven hours later when her attacker unexpectedly fled.
Police will be canvassing West Auckland streets this weekend after a serious daylight attack in a reserve. Photo / Alex Burton
Meanwhile, the rest of the family, enjoying a long, school holidays sleep-in, were oblivious to the horrific ordeal taking place less than a kilometre from their home.
“We were all in our rooms sleeping. We didn’t hear anything,” said the mum.
The mum believed the home was being watched by the intruder, with two children recounting hearing a person saying their names outside their windows in the preceding days.
She said her children often played outside and would call to each other.
“We were being watched. He came with intention. He didn’t touch any device.
“My daughter said, ‘Mum, the person that called my name was the same person who said, ‘If you don’t be quiet, I will kill you’'.”
The family firmly believed the intruder would strike again.
“If he is not stopped now, he will do it again,” they warned.
Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson said the lack of information surrounding the attack was increasing community fears.
The local Facebook page was “abuzz” and people were concerned about reports of people walking through properties.
”It is symptomatic of people really being on edge and looking around every corner at the moment and without information - that kind of makes it worse.”
Police told the Herald a man entered a property on Parma Place in Sunnyvale on Wednesday morning, startling the girl.
“This man has followed the victim from the property to a reserve area off Chislehurst St, where she has been subjected to an assault,” police said.
Police are now looking at CCTV footage and have examined the reserve and the girl’s home.
Information can be provided through the police 105 phone service or by going online and using ‘Update report’. Please reference file number 230419/4024.
People can also contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
