One Answer To Wellington’s Street Violence

Do you recall at the time of Phillip Cottrell’s murder in Wellington that police were at great pains to emphasise what a safe place the city was? They said that street violence was rare in the city.

The day after Mr Cottrell died local newspaper, The Dominion Post,  whose offices are feet away from where Mr Cottrell was found, decided to take the bull by the horns and published data that proved that violence and serious assaults had increased by over 40% in the last year:

“Monthly police statistics show an increase of serious assaults resulting in injury, in either public or private places,  rose from 23 in October 2010 to 33 in October this year (2011)

The monthly reports also show an increase of public place assaults from 62 to 65 in the same time period…”

The report then went on to details other street attacks that had taken place over that weekend and quoted Acting Commander Detective Inspector Steve Vaughan saying the weekend attacks were “terrible and nasty“.

We suggested that showed that the city was anything but safe. Three days after Mr Cottrell was assaulted a woman was attacked in Newtown Avenue just 4 kms away, but news about the attack was withheld until almost two weeks later when police appealed for witnesses.

Now a local man has decided to do something to counter the threat on Wellington’s streets after his 50 year old wife was attacked by a “group” of youths in the city (the word group is often used as a euphemism for gang in New Zealand) Fortunately his wife has a second degree black belt in Karate and able to defend herself, but not everyone is so well prepared so Mr Jennings is offering to train people in self defence.

Reported on by the Dom Post:

“A Johnsonville karate master is offering a self-defence course for ”potential victims” after his wife was attacked by a group of youths in Wellington.

Kyokushin karate instructor, Peter Jennings – a fifth dan Shihan master – said he had become increasingly concerned with the level of serious assaults and other unprovoked attacks in central Wellington and the city’s suburbs.

Highly commendable, Mr Jennings may be doing more for safety on the streets than the law enforcement agencies who seem to prefer to create an illusion of safety. What better way to discourage muggings than to create a self aware populace who are prepared and able to defend themselves against street thugs?

“The risks for innocent people walking the Wellington streets at night “hit home” when a group of youths tried to mug his wife – a 50-year-old bank manager and second degree black-belt – in the CBD last year.

Mr Jennings said his wife was given a black eye in the attack, but was otherwise unharmed, while her assailants – one with a suspected broken jaw – fled empty-handed.

“I hate to consider what may have been the result if she had not known how to effectively respond to the situation.”

The course is open to those of high school age and older but applicants will be vetted.” more here

Two youths aged 17 and 19 were eventually arrested and charged in connection with the death of Mr Cottrell. Read Phillip Cottrell teens arrested at gunpoint .

Other recent Wellington Assault News Reports

19 January:  “The man charged with an assault in Wellington that left a Kapiti man on life support has been remanded until March for forensic tests to be completed.”

Turangi Child Rape: Open Letter to the Prime Minister of New Zealand

Following last months brutal campsite rape of a 5 year old Belgian girl in Turangi Dr Kim McGregor, Executive Director of Rape Prevention Education has written an open letter to John Key.

Dr McGregor calls for a Task-force on Action on Sexual Violence to be set-up in New Zealand and cites some horrendous child abuse figures.

Far from being a great place to raise kids, the high level of sexual violence in New Zealand impacts 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys under the age of 16 years. For more about the significant problems of raising children in New Zealand please see our Education and Childrens Issues facts page.

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“Dear Prime Minister,

To most New Zealanders the brutal sexual assault of the sleeping 5 year old girl in Turangi just before Christmas was a shocking and shameful incident.

Prime Minister, I really hope that this incident will provide the catalyst needed for your government to begin to implement the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence (TASV) report recommendations given to your government in July 2009.

When referring to the taskforce report, the previous Minister of Justice, Simon Power, stated that, our sector represented by Te Ohaakii a Hine National Network Ending Sexual Violence Together (TOAH NNEST), “as a part of the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence, is responsible for the most comprehensive roadmap on sexual violence prevention and services that any Government has ever received”. He also said “and now what you need is an assurance that the Government not only backs your work, but is prepared to pay for it”. (Speech April 2010)

As you will be aware, few of the taskforce recommendations have been implemented and rather than your government resourcing our specialist services, our sector’s capacity to prevent and deal with the high levels of sexual violence in our country has been diminished in the last two years – especially since the withdrawal of $6 million per annum of counselling support (from $10.6 million in 2007/2008 to $4.5 million in 2010/2011 see OIA attached).

Prime Minister, as you will be aware, every community in New Zealand has people who perpetrate sexually harmful behaviours as well as people who have experienced sexual violence. You will also know that such sexual violence is preventable.

Lessons need to be learned from the appalling incident in Turangi, so that we as a nation can join together to protect other children from the sexual violence that currently impacts approximately 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys under the age of 16 years in this country.

Although rarely by a stranger, every year a few of these thousands of children throughout the country will experience one-off brutal incidents similar to the one reported in Turangi. Others will experience regular sexual violations that may be repeated over months or even years. What vary are the victims’ ages and the relationship of the offender to the child.

While most on-going experiences of sexual violence are less outwardly brutal, they are still likely to be traumatic and have long-term negative health and social impacts.

Without intervention and specialist support, child sexual violence is potentially life-threatening. Common on-going effects of child sexual violence can include a lifetime of anxiety, and serious depressions that can develop into harmful behaviours towards the self and/or others.

Mostly there are no witnesses to child sexual violence that happens every day in our country – usually behind closed doors within the child’s home or community.

Commonly the child is prevented from speaking of the crime for a variety of reasons including that the child is groomed to feel they are to blame, is threatened, or, the sex offender is someone close to the child or is a valued member of the child’s community.

If child-victims do ever speak about sexual violence, often it is not until they are adults. This is sometimes when they first look for counselling help.

Many of those who commit sexually harmful behaviours begin with concerning sexualised behaviours in childhood. While some of these behaviours will stop in childhood, without early detection and intervention, by teenage years or early twenties, some of these behaviours may have escalated and become entrenched, impacting many child and/or adult victims – sometimes over many years. A few offenders will also commit brutal attacks similar to the assault committed in Turangi.

Prime Minister, what is required to prevent sexual violence is the increased resourcing that Minister Power referred to and also leadership that extends beyond elections and the term of a single Minister. To keep our children safe, our communities need a government and a specialist sector joined together in a determined effort and sustained over many years.

Please help us by providing the leadership necessary to establish an on-going forum or process so that government Ministers and relevant Ministries can continue to work with our specialist TOAH NNEST sector to make children in this country safe from sexual violence.

There are some simple and achievable actions your government can take immediately. These recommendations were given to your government in the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence report in July 2009 (see the Ministry of Justice website). Key actions include, please:

reinstate the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence that for the first time ever in our country provided leadership through a joint government partnership with specialist Maori and Tauiwi sector representatives.

Two years of the Taskforce (2007-2009) was not enough. We had only just begun the huge amount of work required to make our communities safe from sexual violence;

approve and resource the first ever National Sexual Violence Prevention Plan that was developed over the two years of the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence.

It is unclear why the National Sexual Violence Prevention Plan was scrapped before it was to be approved by Cabinet in 2010. This Plan would have been the first of its kind in New Zealand and would have helped us catch-up to many other countries whose governments have taken an active leadership role in sexual violence prevention; and

provide realistic and sustained funding to our poorly resourced TOAH NNEST specialist sexual violence prevention and intervention frontline services that include early intervention programmes for children with concerning sexualised behaviour.

Our early intervention programmes offer the best hope of identifying early, children who are at risk of later sexual offending, and intervening to prevent this occurring. There are hundreds of children and youths and their families throughout the country who want and need our early interventions that will help to stop further sexual violations. While we have excellent specialist community treatment services throughout the country, these services are currently insufficiently resourced to help increase the safety in all of our communities.

Our TOAH NNEST support services aim to provide every area in New Zealand with specialist child, youth and adult, forensic, medical and psychological early intervention support services, on-going phone and face-to-face individual, and family counselling, criminal justice support services and, where possible, specialist family reintegration and restorative justice services.

Summary

Sexual violence against children in New Zealand happens on a daily basis and affects approximately 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 8 boys under the age of 16 years.

Sexual violence is preventable.

To avoid further sexual attacks on our children I implore you to:

implement the recommendations in the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence report

reinstate the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence

approve and resource the drafted National Sexual Violence Prevention Plan.”

replace the $6 million saved from cuts to our services, and

provide our services with realistic and sustainable funding so that we can provide New Zealanders with the specialist services they need to work to prevent and deal with the huge levels of sexual violence that every community in the country deals with every day.

Sexual violence is a complex social issue. It is hugely costly to survivors of sexual violence, their families, and communities, and the taxpayer. It is by far the most costly crime per incident. Treasury estimated that sexual violence directly cost the economy $1.2 billion in 2003-2004, and the cost now could be as high as $7.5 billion per year.

Our frontline services aim to provide those affected by sexual violence with vital, and often life-saving, early and on-going support, for the years that it often takes to deal with the trauma that follows.

Every community should have access to our wrap-around specialist sexual violence support services including our prevention, early intervention, on-going counselling and court support services, specifically tailored to meet the needs of children, youth, adults and their families.

Its Too Late Now What! American Authors Caught In NZ Dune Rage

The American authors of a book titled Its Too Late Now What! have been attacked whilst on vacation in the Coromandel,  New Zealand.

Hawaiian couple, artists and free thinkers, Felizia Graye and ‘Professor’ Shenandoah Forest were enjoying a quiet day at the beach when, according to the Herald a horror attack left them completely “freaked out”

Ms Graye said the drama unfolded after children on a quad bike began circling where they were sitting at Kennedy Bay, about 15km northeast of Coromandel. As the bike got closer they waved at them to stop, and after she threatened to call police the children went away. But a short time later “a very upset man” arrived.

“He appeared to be really angry about us talking to the kids and started screaming at us and said ‘they are just having fun’.”

The couple left the beach in their camper van but when they stopped a while later they realised that the man had been following them. He approached their vehicle carrying a metal bar. Ms Gaye told the Herald

“He kept screaming and screaming, he was just in this rage and he started bashing up all the windows. I kept telling Shenandoah to try and start the van up. By the time he got the van started there was glass all over us.”

Their van had all its windows smashed, several panels dented, and the rear view mirrors knocked off…” more here

Fortunately the couple were taken care of by some kind hearted locals but it would’ve been good if the attack hadn’t happened in the first place and if motor vehicles were banned or restricted at popular beaches.

Beach race tracks

Perhaps they were unaware that it is quite common for NZ’s beaches to be used by recreational vehicles and that riders and pedestrians do come into contact, sometimes with undesirable outcomes. The couple were very lucky to have escaped without serious injury.

If you’re planning a holiday to New Zealand please take care on the beach as you’ll probably be sharing the sand with a variety of motor vehicles.

13 year old Daisy Fernandez was killed and her friend Claudia Billinge seriously injured by a 15 year old trail bike rider, as they lay in the dunes on Ripiro Beach at Glinks Gully,  southwest of Dargaville, where speeding was a problem. People at the beach had spoken to the youth and asked him to slow down but their pleas went unheeded. Complaints about speeding had also been made to the police earlier on the day of the accident.

Claudia recovered from her injuries and went on to make it to the top 33 contestants in the TV show New Zealand’s Next Top Model.

There have also been numerous accidents where vehicle drivers have been killed or seriously injured on tourist beaches. 21-year-old quad bike rider suffered serious spinal injuries after falling from his vehicle on sand dunes at Muriwai Beach, north-west of Auckland. The incident came despite the Auckland Regional Council’s promise to crack-down on vehicle safety at the beach over a labour weekend following both deaths and injuries to both drivers and other beach users.

We wish Felizia and Shenandoah all the best for the rest of their stay in New Zealand.

17 Year Old Arrested For Mount Roskill Savage Rape

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Mount Roskill Intermediate school

We’re relieved to hear that a suspect has been arrested in relation to the savage beating and rape of woman in Mount Roskill.

The 27 year woman old was attacked as she walked home from work through the grounds of Mount Roskill Intermediate school on the afternoon of  17 January 2012 . Her husband went to look for her and found her semi-conscious and badly injured She was left traumatised by the attack and unable to speak, taking over a week to recover in hospital.

In the same area another woman had been approached earlier in the day by an aggressive male behaving in a threatening manner. She told her mother who lives overseas, who read about the rape on-line and then contacted New Zealand police.

Police say they have a 17 year old youth in custody, given his age we assume that he will not be afforded the privilege of name suppression. Initially he will appear in youth court because he was 16 when the woman was attacked, but we suspect the case will be moved to a higher court to deal with. According to the Herald

He will appear in Auckland Youth Court charged with assault with Intent to commit rape, aggravated wounding, unlawful sexual connection and rape.

At the time, Inspector Gary Allcock said her injuries were “serious” and counted it among the worst he had seen in 28 years of policing.

NZ’s out of control teens

The number of rapes and violent attacks perpetrated by teens in New Zealand is reaching worrying proportions, it was only a matter of weeks ago that a 16 year old raped and mutilated a 5 year old Belgian girl at a Turangi campsite. The two males charged with the death of reporter Phillip Cottrell were aged 17 and 19,  and the youth who battered Karen Aim to death was only 14.

Today two youths  aged 14 and 15 appeared in  Rotorua Youth Court charged with the assault of  elderly Polish man,  Roman Skorek,  whose body was found in Kuirau Park early on Tuesday morning. A 20 year old has been charged with murder.

Youth crime is becoming increasingly savage in New Zealand. As  the officers working on the Turangi rape case said: its time for NZ society to take a good look at itself.

Its also time for an in-depth review of the criminal justice system for youth offenders. Something patently isn’t working.

Mount Roskill Intermediate

The school is situated in south Auckland, use the street view above to locate the area within Auckland.

NZ Not A Walk In The Park – updated

Update: 21 year old Rotorua baker Rawiri James Samuel and an un-named 20 year old male have been charged with murder and Two youths aged 14 and 15  were later charged with assault in connection with the death in Kuirau Park. Police have retrieved property belong to the deceased man, Roman Henry Skorek, and have searched properties in Rotorua. 

Mr Skorek suffered stab wounds to his face and body during the attack. He had recently arrived from Niue to Rotorua and had been staying at the  Crash Palace Backpackers hostel in Rotorua every summer for the last 5 years. He is believed to have no family in New Zealand but has a daughter who lives in the United States.

Our sincere condolences are extended to Mr Skorek’s family and friends.

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On the day that police said they were “confident” that the savage death of a 64 year old Polish man in Rotorua’s Kuirau Park yesterday morning wasn’t gang related (are gangs and their prospects supposed to leave business cards with their victims now and how can four perps not constitute a gang ?) we hear that a middle aged man was beaten up for wearing the wrong colour T shirt in Napier.

Two teenage youths from the small town of Napier, “Black Power” country,  have been charged for mugging a man who dared to wear a black and red T shirt on their turf just before Christmas.

The NZ Herald covered the story, saying

“The youths, aged 16 and 18, will appear in Napier District Court on charges of aggravated robbery and injuring with intent to injure.

Police said the 52-year-old victim had gone to the shops at Greenmeadows on December 23 when he was approached. One of the alleged attackers told him: “This is BP (Black Power) country” and said they were going to take his shirt off him. The shirt’s colours, black and red, are those of the rival Mongrel Mob gang.

The man refused to hand over his shirt and was attacked when he came out of the shop…” more here

The irony is that these two young thugs probably aren’t even Black Power members, but prospects. No doubt their membership chances will be much improved once they’ve served their sentence.

Surely there must be more fruitful and rewarding things for young men to do in Napier?

Kuirau Park Sex Attack

On Sunday evening a 15 year old girl was attacked by a man in the same park where the 60 year old man was found dead. Police think the attack may’ve been sexually motivated. According to a report in Stuff Kuirau Park has a reputation for sexual activity and a 13 year old girl was assaulted in a reserve in the suburb of Fordlands in late November.

Hot Pool Death

Our readers may remember eight year old Toromon Toromon, who was playing in council owned Kuirau Park park with family and friends late Dec 2010, when he accidentally fell into one of the thermal pools. Sadly the little boy died from his injuries in hospital. For more read Hot Pool Fencing and Signage Under Scrutiny In Kuirau Recreational Park and Child Dies After Rotorua Hot Pool Plunge – updated

Rotorua parks: not such a safe places for children, parents take note. Take care how you dress them too:

New Zealand. Any Colour So Long As It’s Black : 4 year old attacked for wearing a red T-shirt in Whakatane and a man gets bashed in New Plymouth because his dog had a red leash.

Supermarket Frenzy

Take care in Rotorua’s supermarkets too. This is a video of two security guards getting wacked by a mother and daughter team earlier this month, it soon went viral

Don’t get caught up in a brawl when shoplifters are challenged. It is socially acceptable in New Zealand to just stand-by and watch – there is no obligation to lend assistance.

Eve Margaret Campbell, 50, and her daughter Cherylly Campbell, 30 later appeared in court charged with aggravated assault.