Two a penny

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South Auckland police are hunting a suspected serial paedophile sex offender who has already attacked two young girls. . The attacks started early last month.

Detective Senior Sergeant, Daryl Harper said he had concerns “for the escalating nature and frequency of offending.

The Mangere CIB and Child Abuse Team Detectives are leading the hunt and say the attacks all happened around a walkway between Cape Road and Mascot Avenue in Mangere.

In the first attack on Tuesday September 8, about 2.”

Police are urging parents to walk with their children to and from school in the area.45pm, the man dragged a 12-year-old girl to the ground and indecently assaulted her, said Mr Harper.

The eight-year-old was attacked while her younger sister screamed for help.

Then on Monday October 19 he attacked an 8-year-old girl and her 6-year old sister as they went home from School on the same walkway.

He saw a man and chased him into a close toby park where he lost him. The girls’ father heard the cries and ran into the walkway.

The attacker grabbed her top.

In the last attack, on Thursday October 22 a 28-year-old mother was pushing her son in a pram in the walkway. She punched him and he ran off. She punched him and he ran off.5ft high.

The offender is described as Polynesian man aged 18-20 years, 5.

. On one occasion he wore a dark green hoodie sweat shirt and dark jeans on another he wore a black baseball cap, white hooded sweat shirt with a black or dark collar

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New Zealand and Australia will each give $NZ6.18 million to the Samoan Government for tsunami recovery and reconstruction efforts.

The money will help Samoa rebuild its infrastructure, restore essential services, and begin the process of economic recovery, foreign ministers Stephen Smith and Murray McCully said today. More than 150 people, including eight New Zealanders, died in Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa.Samoa was devastated by huge waves which struck on September 29 following a massive quake.The ministers said while emergency aid was provided by both countries soon after the tsunami struck, the priority would now be rebuilding communities, including housing, water, power, and roads.New Zealand has already donated $2m. .”The Samoan Government had effectively co-ordinated the response to the disaster and was quickly identifying priorities for recovery and reconstruction.”Australia and New Zealand will continue to co-ordinate our Samoan recovery and reconstruction efforts over the coming weeks.”Waikato sisters Rebecca, 24, and Petria Martin, 22, were among the New Zealanders who died.”This $A10 million trans-Tasman package of budget support provides Samoa with the ability to rebuild its infrastructure, restore essential services, and begin the process of economic recovery.Their father, Kerry, gave the eulogy and questioned why his daughters – the middle two of four sisters – died.They were farewelled in Matamata yesterday, with about 800 people turning out for their service.”Why Rebecca and Petria? We may never have the answers to these questions,” the Herald on Sunday reported.”Why Rebecca and Petria? We may never have the answers to these questions,” the Herald on Sunday reported.They had saved enough money to buy a house together and had found one shortly before they left for Samoa.”Rebecca taught at Rototuna Primary School, 9km north of Hamilton, and Petria was a team leader at Matamata’s sports centre.It is taking 10 containers of equipment to the islands courtesy of the fund-raising efforts and donations here by New Zealanders – many with relatives caught up in the tragedy.The navy ship HMNZS Canterbury departed for Samoa and Tonga yesterday laden with supplies.

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A jealous lover was today jailed for a claw hammer attack on a man who he believed to be his ex-girlfriend’s new partner.

Trevor William Grindrod, 34, was sentenced at the High Court in Wellington to seven years and nine months imprisonment.

The man barricaded himself in the bedroom and told Grindrod he had called the police, “but you were not to be denied,” attacking him with the claw hammer, Justice Gendall said.

Justice Warwick Gendall said that six weeks after Grindrod split with his girlfriend, he visited her house uninvited and saw her with a workmate, “you thought, in a mildly amorous situation”.

“You were fortunate you did not kill the complainant.

“This was an unprovoked, prolonged, gratuitous attack with a lethal weapon,” Justice Gendall said.

He smashed his way into the property through a window, broke through the bedroom door and began hitting the man in the head and body with the hammer, adding punches and kicks.”

Crown prosecutor Kate Feltham said Grindrod walked from Wainuiomata to the workmate’s Lower Hutt house, “picking up” the hammer on the way.

Grindrod told police he was trying to kill the man and was initially charged with attempted murder.

The attack spilled into the bathroom where Grindrod ripped a vanity from the wall and attempted to beat his victim with it.

His victim suffered numerous injuries including a broken nose, but after months of physiotherapy escaped long term physical damage.

This was later reduced to injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

“You are a violent man with a low anger threshold and when slighted by others, or you think you are, you attack.

Justice Gendall noted Grindrod had 20 previous convictions, four of which were for assault and included two attacks on children between late 2007 and early 2008.”

A starting point of 10 1/2 years jail was given, but Grindrod was given a “generous discount” of one-third for his early guilty pleas.”

He said Grindrod had attended an anger management course, “but it appears to have had little effect.

Grindrod was also sentenced to five years for aggravated burglary and two years for grievous damage, to be served concurrently, and ordered to pay $3269 in reparation for property damage on his release. A further nine months was added in light of his previous convictions.

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Justice Gendall said Grindrod was fortunate the crown had not sought a minimum jail period

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OPINION:
The official website of the mayor of Wanganui is a fascinating monument to a man who simply cannot get enough of himself. It is a site absolutely awash in self-love.

Visitors to the cosily titled mayormichael. .co. Oh, and there’s some stuff about Wanganui, too. The site’s latest thrilling additions are magazine photos of Michael Laws’ family dating back to 2003 – just in case any of us neglected to cut them out at the time of publication – but there are also shots of his kids’ birthday parties, updates on the state of his relationship with his partner, and photos of Laws that stretch back to boyhood.

If there is any glimmer of a redeeming feature in this exercise in narcissism, it is that Mr Laws appears to have almost as soft a spot for children as he has for himself.

All of which makes it a surprise to see the level of contempt with which he treated a group of Otaki children who had the temerity to write to him last month. Mr Laws clearly adores his own kids, and has written in the past about the evils of child abuse.

In response, he wrote the girls a letter suggesting their teacher be sacked, urging them to control their anger, and saying he wouldn’t take their views seriously unless they first looked at the rate of child abuse and murder within Maori society.

The seven students of Otaki School’s kura kaupapa unit, aged from 11 to 13, wrote to Mr Laws in Maori to say what they thought about the controversy over whether Wanganui should have an “h” in its name. But here’s the thing: whatever.

There has since been much debate about whether the Maori word used by all seven students in their letters and translated by Mr Laws’ team as “anger” should instead have been “frustration”. It shouldn’t be news to Mr Laws, father of many, that pre-teen girls are stroppy, and that 12-year-olds have yet to learn the social bullshit that enables us to express our opinions in a detached manner. It shouldn’t be news to Mr Laws, father of many, that pre-teen girls are stroppy, and that 12-year-olds have yet to learn the social bullshit that enables us to express our opinions in a detached manner. Children of their age should, he said, care only about Harry Potter.

Firstly, this champion of direct democracy argued that “it’s wrong for kids to be angry about something inanimate”.

AN ARGUMENT this ludicrous doesn’t fly for long, so Mr Laws then argued that their teacher had put them up to it. In others words, it’s not just that their views are wrong; they shouldn’t be allowed to have views. As any parent knows, it’s impossible to convince a 12-year-old girl to turn her music down if she doesn’t want to. Who is this classroom Svengali? Again, I come back to the legendary stroppiness of pre-teen girls.

. The thought of a teacher being able to persuade seven of them to write letters against their will is simply inconceivable, unless electric cattle prods were involved

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The Government is planning a stocktake of valuable minerals in the conservation estate but it isn’t going to dig up pristine landscape, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

Conservation land is protected by Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act and Mr Brownlee said he wasn’t considering changing the legislation.”What we’re examining at is the type of land that needs to be in Schedule Four,” he told reporters today.”Mr Brownlee mentioned the stocktake at a mining conference in Queenstown yesterday.”All we’re saying is there may be some places where the conservation values of the land are significantly less than the high standard put on Schedule Four.The estimated value of untapped minerals in New Zealand has been put at about $140 billion and around 70 percent of that involves conservation land.He said today there seemed to be “a degree of panic” about it which was not warranted.”New Zealand has some of the most pristine landscape in the world.”What we’re saying is where there are new lands added to that we need to balance both aspects of economic and conservation values. It is recognised in Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act as being impenetrable,” Mr Brownlee said. This is a stocktake, which is perfectly reasonable. .”What New Zealanders need to know is that New Zealand is similarly endowed,” he said.”He said the previous government spent nine years explaining the economic gap between Australia and New Zealand was as a result of Australia’s mineral wealth.”It’s going to be a very public process.”It’s going to be a very public process

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Prime Minister John Key has struck turbulence in Niue over aid.

The island’s premier, Toke Talagi, today ratcheted up the stakes by threatening to seek aid money from China if New Zealand did not release funds which he said Niue desperately needed to put its economy on a sounder footing.

“It makes sense for us to look at other forms of support to ensure that we can do the things we want to do for our economy as quickly as possible,” he said. If we don’t do that in a timely manner we are wasting our time, therefore we’ve got to look elsewhere if we can’t access those funds from New Zealand.

“The opportunity that is available to us at the present moment is to build our economy, build accommodation for example so we can get a second [Air New Zealand] service from New Zealand.

At issue is about $4 million in aid money which falls outside the annual aid assistance provided by New Zealand to Niue.”

But Mr Key said he was waiting for the arrival of a special envoy from New Zealand to consider how the aid money should be spent before it was released. It is tagged for economic development aimed at making the island’s economy more sustainable.

Mr Key said the money would be released as long as the Government was confident the funds would be deployed in the right places.

The island, which has a population of fewer than 2000, is heavily dependant on aid.

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A plane flying from Great Barrier Island to Auckland with around 11 people on board was forced to turn back yesterday when one of its propellers broke apart shortly after take-off.

Traffic Accident Investigation Commission chief investigator Tim Burfoot said they knew very little about the incident involving the Great Barrier Airlines plane but an investigator had been sent to the island.

He said the rear-propeller of the tri-engine plane, believed to be a Britten Norman Trilander, had broken apart and either one or both blades had detached themselves from the rear engine’s propeller hub mid-flight.

Mr Burfoot said pilots were trained to handle such situations and it was standard practice for planes to find a suitable spot for an emergency landing.

“The plane made a successful return and nobody was injured,” he said.”

It was unclear what damage there was to the plane.

“The plane had three engines, that particular plane, so they obviously would have lost one and [the pilot] would have shut that down when it happened and he would have had the other two.

The investigation was expected to take several days. .

Great Barrier Island fire and police said they were not aware of the incident.

– By Michael Field and Clio Francis,

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LATEST:
Lock Jason Eaton and wing Hosea Gear have been handed international recalls as Graham Henry today unveiled his 30-strong All Blacks squad for the Tri-Nations.

The selection of Eaton and Gear, who both toured with the All Balcks at the end of last year, and the return from injury of experienced performers Richie McCaw, Rodney So’oialo and Sitiveni Sivivatu are the features of the squad named this morning by Henry and his assistant coaches Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen.

Dropped from the Iveco Series squad is exciting young Counties Manukau wing Lelia Masaga, who could claim to be hard done by after being given only a fleeting chance to shine, and Waikato loose forward Liam Messam who seems to have paid the price for a shoddy performance in Dunedin against France.

Toeava has been named in the squad but Henry confirmed he will miss the first three tests of the Tri-Nations with a stress fracture in his foot.

The squad has a 17-13 forwards-backs split, but it continues to be dogged by injury with utility back Isaia Toeva the latest to join the list of walking wounded.

The return of All Blacks captain McCaw will be a massive boost, with the skipper now fully recovered from the knee injury that kept him out of the Iveco Series. Five-eighth Stephen Donald is also carrying a hamstring strain that may put his participation in the July 18 competition opener against the Wallabies in doubt. .

Both last played for the All Blacks on the 2008 Grand Slam tour, with the pair returning to New Zealand yesterday after helping the Junior All Blacks to victory in the recent IRB Pacific Nations Cup in the Pacific Islands.

The big movers have been 26-year-old Hurricanes and Taranaki lock Eaton and 25-year-old Hurricanes and Wellington winger Gear who have both been whistled up out of the Junior All Blacks. They will then reassemble in Auckland next Sunday to start preparations for the competition opener.

The All Blacks squad will get together in Wellington for a two-day camp next week (Wednesday and Thursday) with four players added as cover.

Players not considered for selection due to injury include lock Ali Williams (Achilles), wing Rudi Wulf (shoulder), flanker Adam Thomson (hand), centre Richard Kahui (shoulder), lock Anthony Boric (toe), halfback Andy Ellis (ribs), hooker Corey Flynn (forearm), flanker Scott Waldrom (back) and first-five eighths Daniel Carter (Achilles).

They are: Hurricanes and Wellington utility back Tamati Ellison, Crusaders and Canterbury first five-eighths Stephen Brett and 2008 All Blacks Ben Franks and Anthony Tuitavake, who were all members of the victorious Junior All Blacks squad.

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A Yemeni Airbus A310 jet carrying 153 people crashed into rough seas as it came into land in the Comoros Islands on Tuesday but rescuers plucked a child survivor from the water, officials said.

There were 142 passengers and a crew of 11 Yemenis on board when the Airbus A310, which had set off from the Yemeni capital of San’a, went down shortly before landing in Moroni, on the main island of Grand Comore, Yemeni civil aviation deputy chief Mohammed Abdul Qader said.

It was the second time in less than a month that an Airbus has crashed into the ocean.

Bodies and wreckage from the Yemenia airline flight were spotted in the Indian Ocean near the capital, Moroni, aviation officials said. This time French authorities said the Yemeni carrier had been under surveillance and that problems had been reported with the jet.

The child was being taken to land where an ambulance waited to take the child to hospital.

But a child among the 142 passengers and 11 crew on Flight IY 626 was rescued alive, a surgeon at the main Moroni hospital said.Most of the passengers were from Comoros, returning from Paris. France said 66 on board were French nationals. Those on board included families with children and there were at least three babies on the flight, he added. She said that three bodies have also been retrieved, along with debris from the plane, but that no other survivors have been recovered so far.Comoros immigrations officer, Rachida Abdullah, told The Associated Press that a child was rescued from the sea. He said it was too early to speculate on the reasons for the crash, adding that the flight data recorder hadn’t been found.Abdul Qader, the Yemeni official, said the child was 5 years old.”The weather was very bad .”The weather was very bad . the wind was very strong,” he said, adding the windy conditions hampered rescue efforts..Gen. Abdul Qader said wind speed was 40 miles per hour (61 kilometers per hour) as the plane was landing.2 miles) north from the Comoran coast and 18 nautical miles (21 miles) from the Moroni airport. Bruno de Bourdoncle de Saint-Salvy, the senior commander for French forces in the southern Indian Ocean, said the Airbus 310 crashed in deep waters about 8 nautical miles (9.m.And on the Indian Ocean island of Ile de la Reunion, an official statement from the French prefecture said the crash occurred at 02:50 GMT Tuesday (10:50 p.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said French aviation and naval support was heading to help in search operations at the Comoros government’s request. EDT Monday).Kouchner expressed “sincere condolences” and said the French Embassy in Moroni was “fully mobilized” to help families.Kouchner expressed “sincere condolences” and said the French Embassy in Moroni was “fully mobilized” to help families. The French junior minister for cooperation, Alain Joyandet, is heading Tuesday to Moroni, the statement said.The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated about 2,900 kilometers south of Yemen, between Africa’s southeastern coast and Madagascar.Christophe Prazuck, French military spokesperson, says that patrol boat, the Rieuse and fregate Nivose, a reconnaissance ship, were being sent to crash site as well as Transall, a military transport plane. The French were sending divers as well as medical personnel on the plane, he said.In Paris, a crisis cell was set up at Charles de Gaulle airport. Most of the passengers on board were from the French city of Marseille, which has a large Comoros community.Another crisis cell has been established in Marseille, according to Stephane Salord, the consul general of the Comoros in the Provence-Alps-Cote d’Azur region of France.”There is considerable dismay,” Salord said. “These are families that, each year on the eve of summer, leave Marseille and the region to rejoin their families in the Comoros and spend their holidays.”In France, this week is the start of annual summer school vacations.An Airbus statement said the plane that crashed went into service 19 years ago, in 1990, and had accumulated 51,900 flight hours. It has been operated by Yemenia (Yemen Airways) since 1999.Airbus identifies the plane’s serial number as 535, and said it was sending a team of specialists to the Comoros. . There are 214 A310s in service worldwide with 41 operators.France’s transport minister Dominique Bussereau said French aviation inspectors found a “number of faults” during a 2007 inspection of the plane. He told France’s i-Tele television that the Airbus A310 was inspected by France’s civil aviation agency DGAC and “they noticed a certain number of faults.”On May 31, an Airbus A330 operated by Air France ran into thunderstorms after leaving Brazil and crashed into the Atlantic. Fifty-one bodies were recovered from that flight, which was carrying 228 people.

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A Poverty Bay teenager found dead in his
bed yesterday suffered head injuries in an fight at a party last week,
police say.

A homicide investigation has been launched, Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Scott of Gisborne CIB said.

Family members found Waylin Te Rau Aroha Ngarangione, 19, dead at his family home in Manutuke, 13km southwest of Gisborne, about 9am yesterday.

`We’re still trying to work out exactly what’s happened,” he said.

The teen had been involved in an fight during a small party at the house in Manutuke last Wednesday night, Mr Scott said. It was at a party of about eight to 10 people, a small group of family and friends.

“I think it was just a minor argument.

“We’re still working through it, talking to all the people who were there, just putting a picture together.

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Body may be that of missing man

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