High-speed chase after abduction

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 5

High-speed chase after abduction

PA Napier Police chased a car at speeds of more than 160km/h through Napier on Tuesday evening after a girl, aged 13, was snatched off a street by two men. The girl was walking from her home to her aunt’s house nearby about 11.30 p.m. As she neared an alley a man grabbed her from behind and bustled her screaming into a car where another man was waiting.

Luckily the girl knew a family in the street and her screaming alerted Mr Troy Yeoman who said that he was sitting by his front window when he heard the girl screaming his name and yelling “rape.” “I ran outside, but by that time they were throwing her in the car,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr Yeoman’s mother, Beryl, telephoned the police. Detective Senior-Sergeant Bill Withers said the abductors’ car was spotted and a high-speed chase followed.

Two police cars chased the pair for about 30 minutes at speeds sometimes over 160km/h and had to dodge objects such as bottles, a cassette player and a tyre lever thrown at them, Detective Senior-Ser-geant Withers said. The chase ended when the abductors’ car was cornered in a cul-de-sac and the men fled.

Detective Senior-Sergeant Withers said that one man was arrested nearby and the other in a house about an hour later.

The girl had been punched in the head several times during the incident but the extent of her injuries was not known yet, he said.

Two Napier men appeared in the District Court yesterday charged with abducting a girl with intent to have sexual intercourse with her. They entered no pleas and were remanded in custody to January 13.