Youths make Jacqui's life hell

FEARFUL: Jacqui Cornish has been taunted by kids. PHOTO/BEN FRASER 171213BF12

It started off with a few kids taunting outside her Pohutukawa Drive property.

But a Rotorua grandmother fears what may happen next as a gang of bullies grows in number and school holidays give them more free time.

Since earlier this year Jacqui Cornish, 62, has had strawberries stolen from her garden, plants ripped out, a wheelbarrow stolen, a mobility scooter tyre slashed and mail stolen from her mailbox.

Youths have gone down the right of way to her house and verbally abused her, and one day when she walked to her mailbox using a walking stick she was intimidated by a group who surrounded her.

"A police car came down the street and they all ran off. I'm waiting for a hip operation. If they had pushed me over, I wouldn't have been able to get up," she said.

"It's been going on since earlier this year but now the holidays are here I fear it's going to get worse. It started off with just a few but now there are more of them, it's gathered strength."

She said it started with just a few kids aged around 11. The most recent events have involved teenagers and even adults, numbering around 25.

"I've been here two years and the lady next door around six months. They go along the street, taunting us and giving us the finger. It's just awful. They don't seem to have any respect for anyone.

"One day they came down our right of way into my yard, and I kept asking them to leave and they wouldn't. One of them said it was their land. We're both Pakeha, they're Maori. It's a deep hatred from them."

Mrs Cornish lives in the house with her two grandsons, who are 6 and 8. Her neighbour is 65 and occasionally has her mother, aged in her 80s, stay over.

"We're not sleeping at night, we're scared they're going to come on to the yard. They have threatened to put bricks through our windows and threatened harm to us," Mrs Cornish said.

Rotorua police Senior Sergeant Brendon Keenan said police had increased patrols in the Owhata area. He also said police were able to deal with children as young as 10.

"It's always worth getting police involved as police can still do stuff with young people - the options and channels are different," he said.