Knife possible clue

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34097, 8 March 1976, Page 1

Knife possible clue

(N Z Press Association} AUCKLAND, March 7. A knife might be a clue to the identity of a masked man who raped a girl of 15 and robbed her mother and boyfriend in Mount Wellington late last evening.

The man took the knife, a table knife with an 84in blade, from a kitchen drawer after he smashed his way into the girl’s home in Panama Road about 11.45 p.m.

The girl and her boyfriend, aged 18, were watching television in a lounge when the intruder burst into the house after smashing a glass panel on the front door and reaching through the hole to unlock it.

Hearing the noise, the girl’s mother, who was in a

bedroom at the time, went to the lounge. She, her daughter, and the youth were all threatened by the intruder, who. head covered with a scarf, demanded money. They scraped together about $2O. and gave it to him. Detective Sergeant S. R. H. Keith, of the Otahuhu C. 1.8., said today that the intruder then went to the kitchen, got the table knife, and forced the girl into a bedroom at knife-point and ordered her to undress. He made the girl’s mother go into another bedroom. After the girl disrobed, the man cut her about the lower bodv with the knife and then raped her. Some time later, the girl managed to escape from the house. The police were informed. Detective Sergeant Keith said the intruder took the knife away with him. and the police were trying to

trace it. The girl required hospital treatment for knife wounds, which could leave permanent scars. The knife, one of a kitchen set, had a cracked yellow bone handle. It had "Waddington. Uxbridge. Firth stainless” engraved on the i upper part of the blade. Mr Keith said the intruder was either a Maori or Islander in his mid-twenties, j about sft Win. of medium build, with broad shoulders. He had curly black mediumlength hair. At the time of the assault he was wearing blue denim trousers and jacket. His shirt was brown with a floral pattern on it. The scarf on his head appeared to be made of wool. It was either white or fawn in colour. Detective Sergeant Keith said that anyone who knew where the knife was, or could help to identify the intruder. should get in touch with the Otahuhu C. 1.8.