Help for stretched Auckland police

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 4

Help for stretched Auckland police

NZPA Auckland ; Auckla n -d ’ s police, stretched to the limit with three murder inquiries, will be reinforced this week by: out-of-town detectives. "T?'More than. 80 Auckland detectives and uniformed police have been working up j to 15 hours a day hunting, the.,killers of Alicia May| O’Reilly, aged six, Jacqueline Hazel Blunden, aged IG, and a part-Polynasian man so far unidentified by the police. Detectives were further pressed with a knife attack on two youths in Remuera on Saturday. In Palmerston North, two girls were attacked in their: bedroom early on Saturday morning. i Three detectives from Hamilton, two fro. i Christchurch, and one each from Wellington and Rotorua will replace some local staff at the New Lynn-based murder :

inquiry. The Auckland regional coordinator of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Detective Chief Superintendent D. Wilkinson, said yesterday he was concerned about the long hours the police were putting in, particularly on the O’Reilly and Blunden cases. “It is necessary during the initial stages of an inquiry to.work long 1: nirs but it is important after this period that staff have breaks!

from duty. The stage has| been reached in the O’Reilly' case when staff should be. rostered for days off, eachi week,” he said. ■ f Most of the 38 detectives working on this case were' given a day off this week-' end — the first for some of; ithem since the inquiry beganon August . 17. J i Two youths„• were stabbed in an apparently unprovoked attack in Remuera on Saturday evening. Mark Sell, aged 18, of Remuera, and David Izzard, aged 21, of Mount; Eden, were rushed to Auck-i land Hospital .soon after a; blond youth leapt from a car! and left both victims withj I knife wounds to the stomach' region. ; “David, my younger sister and myself were walking up' Omahu Street about 7.30 p.m. on our way to a party,” said Mark Sell in hospital. “We got to the top of the street and the car screeched to a halt beside us; This guy got out and started attacking me, but I did not see any

: weapon.”• David Sell then chased the ; attacker to the waiting geta- ! way car and caught him before, he got in. “I landed a; . few punches, then he . stabbed me,” he said. The’ Car drove of. | The head of the police; team hunting for the attacker, Detective Senior-Ser-I geant B. J. Metcalf, said . yesterday that the car had I been traced. i

| “We have received assistance from a number of people in the area plus the Itwo.female occupants of the I attacker’s car,” he said. Detectives were still hunting ’last evening for the driver 'of the car and the attacker. ■ Two teen-age girls were ! attacked in their home at Hokowhitu, Palmerston North, early on Saturday by a knife-wielding intruder. The police said a man indecently assaulted the girls •in their bedroom after he '•climbed through a window i about 1.30 a.m. The police [were called to the house by {the girl’s father, who arrived {home to .ind the man in the ‘girls’ room. The father chased the man down the road, and a police dbg. also followed .a track. The police later arrested a ipan, who will appear in court today. They took possession of a knife. A In a separate attack yesterday a Balmoral woman, aged 77, was injured in her bedroom by a knife-wielding intruder. The police said the woman was woken about 2.30 p.m. by a man,holding a knife to ; her throat. He demanded money. ! The intruder . made a | thorough search of the i house, and made off with a {small sum of money. The woman suffered cuts to her face and fingers. The p'olice are seeking a man, aged in his mid-20s.