A 13-year-old girl pleaded for help from a stranger minutes before she was dragged into bushes yesterday and raped in a daylight attack near a busy road.
Police say the girl approached a woman filling her car at the BP station on Great North Rd in Waterview, west Auckland, and begged for help after being followed by a stranger for about a kilometre from Pt Chevalier.
The woman reportedly told the girl to keep away from the man, and drove off.
Police are urging the motorist to contact them.
Detective Sergeant Andy King last night told the Herald the man posed a huge risk to the community, and it was feared he could strike again.
"This is a real blitz attack, for want of a better word, on a very vulnerable young girl.
"He was harassing her off and on the whole way ... he ended up grabbing her by the arm and dragging her into some nearby bush area and raping her."
The girl - who is believed to live in the area - was followed from the Pt Chevalier shops, along various walkways that run through the area.
It is believed the man tried to strike up a conversation with her before going into the BP petrol station, where a security camera was operating.
Soon after leaving the service station, the man dragged the girl into secluded bushes in the Esplanade and raped her.
The girl told police he continued to follow her for several minutes after the assault, before running off. She did not see which way he went.
The girl went home and told her mother after being released by her attacker.
Mr King believed the attack was the first of its kind since since another Oakley Creek Reserve attack about three or four years ago.
He said children were home for the school holidays, and he advised parents to keep a close eye on them.
"Stranger attacks on women are unusual, but for it to happen in broad daylight like this, and to a young girl, makes it incredibly scary."
Mr King said the attacker appeared to know the area well and police are appealing for sightings or any information about him.
The victim has described him as a Maori or Polynesian, aged between 20 and 30, of a solid build and about 1.82m tall.
The man had his hair tied back in a very bushy ponytail and was wearing a dark-coloured cap and dark wrap-around sunglasses.
He was wearing a brown or khaki coloured T-shirt emblazoned with a white Puma logo and Puma cat motif, long khaki army shorts, with white socks and shoes and had a white stretchy athletic bandage on his left elbow.
Mr King said police would continue to interview witnesses and make a wide canvass of the area. They would use their intelligence database to identify potential offenders.
The girl had a medical assessment yesterday and was to be interviewed by a specialist child interviewer tomorrow or on Wednesday.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA
Can you help?
Police are urging anyone with information to call Detective Sergeant Andy King on (09) 302-6611.
