Click photo to enlarge
German tourist Maja recovers at the Dunedin Central Police
Station yesterday after a bad experience with a Dunedin man
she flew to New Zealand to meet last week. Photo by staff
photographer.
A German tourist whose internet relationship turned out
to be anything but romantic has warned of the dangers of
travelling across the world to meet a stranger after spending a
week in a Dunedin man's home she described as a "horror house".
Maja, a 36-year-old musician from Leipzig, was at the centre
of a police armed offenders squad search at a Garfield Ave,
Roslyn, house on Saturday.
The drama teacher and mother of one last night told the
Otago Daily Times she knew as soon as she arrived in
Dunedin on February 8 she had made a mistake.
She said the man who met her at the airport was not the
33-year-old PhD student with whom she had struck up an
internet relationship in October through his Myspace page,
but an unkempt, unemployed 54-year-old man.
The man yesterday contacted the ODT and said his name
was Peter Robb.
Mr Robb said he believed the police had made up the reason
for the AOS callout and information provided to the newspaper
by the police was incorrect.
He said he had been the victim of substantial criminal
harassment and abuse from the Dunedin police and others for
several years.
"The Dunedin police have set you up in an elaborate farce it
would appear," Mr Robb said.
Maja said she contacted Mr Robb because his page appeared as
if he was part of an advertisement for New Zealand.
She had been looking for South Island contacts and he and she
seemed to have the same interests.
It was only later she learned Mr Robb had superimposed a
photo of himself appearing about 20 years younger on to the
advertisement.
Mr Robb began emailing her frequently, sending her eloquent
messages and poetry, until slowly the relationship turned
romantic.
"He was quite intellectual and he knew the way to my heart."
It was not until after she had bought tickets to New Zealand
that she became concerned he was emailing too often.
"But I had already booked the flight and it took all the
money I have, and he said, `You can live here in my house for
bed and breakfast' and he would help meet people and find
work.
"It sounds very good. I never thought he was really lying.
Maybe I'm stupid in that case, or naive."
When she arrived in Dunedin, she was alarmed after he rushed
up to her, gave her a large hug and an over-friendly kiss and
hurried her to his car.
"He had such a creepy aura. I was in shock."
