Violent attack on I.H.C. trainees

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 8

Violent attack on I.H.C. trainees

Two violent attacks on young intellectually handicapped people on Thursday afternoon are worrying the Society for the Intellectually Handicapped. Any unprovoked attack on defenceless people must be of concern to everyone, said the society’s chief administrator, Mr Peter Holes. About 3.30 p.m. on Thursday four young men who work at the I.H.C.’s rural training unit in Burwood were attacked while on a bus home. Three youths, who had been following the bus in a car, jumped on through the back door when the bus stopped at Kerrs Road. One had a knife and they were wearing knuckle-

dusters, said a Christchurch Transport Board spokesman.

Three of the four victims were injured. One was covered in blood where he was struck on the forehead, another was kicked in the stomach, and the third hit on the head, he said. A second bus had to be brought out to finish the trip because of the amount of blood on the floor of the bus.

In the second incident, two men tried to rob an intellectually handicapped Kn outside the United ce Hotel in Cathedral Square about 4 p.m. They forced the man, aged 23, to the ground and tried to steal his dualspeaker radio cassette

player, said Detective Senior-Sergeant Quentin Doig. The police would like to speak to anyone who saw the second incident. Inquiries into both attacks are continuing. Mr Holes said the violent nature of both incidents was worrying, whether it was an intellectually handicapped person or not. The society had looked into the first attack to see if any precautions could be taken. “It is very hard to police these things and would involve providing staff to protect and supervise all our trainees. One has to take it as an isolated incident, apparently without provocation,” he said.