Warning on safety after sex attacks

Press, 21 December 1981, Page 6

Warning on safety after sex attacks

PA "j . • ' Auckland . In the wake of a spate .of vicious sex attacks, theAuckland police have warned that people in the city “are. not even safe in their own homes." As detectives continue to hunt four rapists, the Auckland police press officer, Senior-Sergeant W. D. Hall, warned that it was no longer a matter of the usual “locks and bolts” to keep intruders out.

“We are talking about a gross violation of personal liberties,” he said. “It seems that people are not even safe in their own homes.”

The police, civic leaders, and women’s groups have all expressed shock at the increasing number of sex attacks. Women have been

warned to take extreme care at all times. In the last week, four women have.been raped and. another sexually attacked. The Auckland Rape-Crisis. Centre said yesterday that it . .was extremely concerned "about the increase in reported rapes in the last week.

A' spokeswoman ■ for the organisation said that the rapes and sexual attacks reported to the police were only a small precentage of all the rapes that occurred in Auckland.

The Mayor of Auckland, Mr Colin Kay, said that he would consult those concerned to try to find a solution to the recent spate of sex attacks.

A man, aged 34, will appear in the District Court at

Auckland today charged with' the rape of an Onehunga woman.

•A youth will appear in the District Court at Papakura today on charges related to a sex attack on a housewife at Takanini last week.

. However, the police at Takapuna, Otahuhu, and Weymouth are still, hunting rapists in those areas. In the Takapuna attack, a girl, aged 19, was raped 20 metres, from her home on Thursday night. In the Papatoetoe incident, a girl, aged 16, was raped in the grounds of the Papatoetoe Intermediate School after attending a work Christmas party in Auckland. As yet, no charges have been laid after the reported rape of a girl, aged 15, at Weymouth on Thursday. The Auckland police believe that this year for the first time they will have more than 100 rapes reported to them in a year. -Figures issued recently showed an increase in the reported rapes from 43 last year to 73 for the first nine months of 1981. , Sex attacks have also risen sharply from 188 to 262. i