Porirua
residents fight off man attempting to abduct 3-year-old girl
by BRAD
FLAHIVE
March 14,
2017
A father has
told how he fought with a man who tried to abduct his 3-year-old daughter,
before neighbours joined in to subdue the attacker.
The father
was walking home with the girl in Exploration Way, in the Porirua suburb of
Whitby, when a "suspicious-looking" man started to follow them,
"breathing heavily and muttering swear words".
"I told
him to back off, when all of sudden he lunged at me," the father said.
"I
scooped up my daughter and ran into the road and started waving and yelling for
a car to stop.
"He
chased me and grabbed hold of me while I had my daughter in my arms.
"I
yelled for help, and at him to leave us alone. All I could think of was trying
to protect my daughter.
"I
pushed her away from me and told her to run away. Of course she's only 3, so
she tried to run back towards me."
Neighbour Jo
Alderdice heard the swearing and yelling, about 3pm on Monday, and came to
intervene.
"I
instantly knew one of them was trying to snatch her, so my first thought was
just to get the girl," she said.
"As I
ran towards them, I thought I would just slam myself into them to get her free,
but when I got to them the girl had dropped to the ground.
"I
grabbed her and ran into my house and locked the doors, screaming for someone
to call the police.
"Once I
was inside, the man started trying to break my front door down."
The father
said that, when they first saw the man, "he was shuffling and swaying a
little bit, and not engaging".
"He was
following about a foot behind us. I could hear him breathing heavily and
muttering swear words.
"I
stopped to see if he would walk past but he didn't, so my first thought was to
get on to the street away from him and in a public view."
He suspected
the man might be a resident of a nearby home for people with mental health
problems.
"I
hoped once we walked past [the house] he would just go inside, but as we got to
the house he beckoned my daughter to come inside."
After
Alderdice's interventions, the father and another neighbour continued to
wrestle with the man, who pushed a neighbour through the fence to get to
Alderdice's door.
"He was
determined to get in the house, and if we weren't there we would have forced
his way in, I'm sure of it," the father said.
"We
managed to hold him down while he spouted off random stuff about the KKK and
the devil, crazy babble."
Police have
confirmed a 32-year-old man has been arrested for abduction and assault. A
court date has yet to be set.
Mental
health services provider Pathways Health said on Monday night that the man in
custody had been placed in its care "by the clinical team at Capital &
Coast DHB, and was in the process of being admitted when the incident
occurred".
"We are
deeply shocked and distressed by this incident," chief executive Sally
Pitts-Brown said. "Our main focus at this point is on supporting the
wellbeing of all of the people involved, in any way we can.
"Our
Pathways service is not a secure environment. We provide supported home-like
environments where people can have a short break when they need to rest and
focus completely on their wellbeing.
"We are
working with the police as they carry out their investigations. We are also
supporting our staff and people who use our services that have been affected by
this situation."
The father
said: "My daughter is doing all right. She is only 3, so doesn't fully
understand what's happened.
"I've
been shaking for a good few hours, but I am so grateful to our neighbours. They
were just amazing, and instinctively protective.
"If
they hadn't been there, it would have been a different story."
Police said
the man was in mental health care on Tuesday morning but charges would be
coming.
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