Serial Sex Attacker Strikes Again In Mangere

Police are hunting for a sex attacker who has victimised a number of girls and young women in Mangere, South Auckland. The assaults all took place in and around a walkway between Cape Road and Mascot Avenue over the last 2 months, the last one on October 22 was when a young mother was attacked whilst pushing her baby in his pram. Other victims include 8 and 12 year old girls.


View Larger Map of the walkway

Parents are being advised to accompany their children to and from school.
Update: a 14 year old youth was arrested the following day. see blog post

Christchurch's "Terrorism" Hits World News

From an article in  The Press by Ian Steward

"Christchurch's boy racers have again hit the headlines overseas, with a German magazine saying residents are afraid of car-based "terrorism".

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the article was an accurate reflection of Christchurch: "It's a problem we have. It is something that happens here and it's an interesting social phenomenon, which I presume is the angle they're coming from."

Geo, a German magazine similar to National Geographic, devoted its October-November issue to New Zealand, with 14 positive articles on subjects ranging from kakapo and conservation to rugby, fish and chips, baches and adventure tourism.

The article on Christchurch was called "Frenzy of the youth". It featured pictures of boy racers in belligerent poses, drinking, wheel-spinning and hanging out on streets such as Moorhouse Ave...

View Larger Map of Moorhouse Ave.

...A German television programme devoted an episode to Christchurch's car culture in January. The German article details a night with Matt and Megan, who go to parties at crossroads and indulge in illegal street racing to relieve boredom.

The article said Matt put his telephone number on his rear window so others could contact him.
"Perhaps for a little race out at McLeans Island. Or for a meeting at the supermarket car park on Main South Road for a bit of drifting? On an oil patch, to hear the new album from Eminem, or see whatever else is up."

The article focuses on statistics showing that Christchurch people, particularly women and the elderly, are afraid in their city after dark...."

For more of his report see link 

Right Wing Vigilante Group

The garden city has been getting some really bad press recently, it wasn't so long ago that it was being forced to defend itself against the dubious honour of being dubbed the nation's crime capital.

Just yesterday Mr Steward wrote an article which began with  "A 'white pride' group, Right Wing Resistance (RWR), claims to be patrolling New Brighton streets that "the police and the system has all but given up on". The piece went on to explain how the group, who some would label "skinheads" have taken it upon themselves to do something because the locals "were getting very upset with youths, particularly Polynesian youths, standing over people and vandalising."

For other blog posts about social issues in Christchurch see:
Everyday 'race hate' rife in Christchurch
67 boy racers taken off the streets of Christchurch
Another schoolkid injured in racist attack
Christchurch's drunken mayhem
Christchurch's weekend battleground
British tourist wishes he'd been warned about the violence

7 People Killed In Holiday Weekend Carnage

Despite safety warnings and pleas from police and motoring organisations for people to take care over the holiday weekend at least seven people have died and many more have been injured in 16 separate incidents, some of them from countries such as Germany and Saudi Arabia. The death toll however wasn't as bad as it was over Anzac weekend when 14 people lost their lives, causing the National Road Policing manager, Superintendent Paula Rose to describe the roads as "killing fields".

The fatalities this weekend started on Friday night and have occurred at

• SH 5 Near Reporoa, one person died and another was seriously injured. Shortly after the collision two more vehicles crashed into the wreckage and two more people were hurt.
  

• SH1 at Five Mile Bay, south of Taupo. A head on crash claimed two lives of two women at a spot where there had been numerous serious crashes, the last one only six weeks previously.

• Maungatapu Track in the Maitai Valley, near Nelson. A four wheeled drive rolled into a river killing the 16 year old driver Tod Woodman. Two other people were flown from the scene with minor injuries.

• SH6 at Coal Creek, Greymouth where a motorcyclist was killed when his bike crashed into a bridge.

• Lyttleton Avenue in Porirua where a woman died when she was hit whilst running alongside a bus.

• SH2 near Woodlands Road at Waihi where a van carrying eight people rolled. A Saudi Arabian man was was killed, one critically injured and the rest taken to hospital.
  

Injuries in other incidents included

• Two German tourists in their twenties who were injured when their van hit a bank then rolled onto its roof near Pelorus Bridge as they travelled from Nelson.
• A toddler and a motorcyclist who were critically injured in a collision on SH1 near Huntly. 
• A crash between a truck and car on SH2 Pekapeka Road at Netherton. 
• A driver who was injured when a rental car left SH2 at  Rimutaka Hill, Upper Hutt and rolled down a bank, 
• A car that rolled in the Manawatu Gorge.
• A woman received serious head injuries after she was thrown from her car whilst backing out of  driveway in Manurewa.
• A child was badly injured when it ran out in front of a vehicle in Otara. 
• A woman was seriously injured after being hit by a 4WD vehicle on a rural property west of Hokitika.
• 21-year-old quad bike rider suffered serious spinal injuries after falling from his vehicle on sand dunes at Muriwai Beach, north-west of Auckland. The incident came despite the Auckland Regional Council's promise to crack-down on vehicle safety at the beach over the labour weekend following both deaths and injuries to both drivers and other beach users.
• SH1 northbound at Waikanae was blocked following a crash.