Two 14-year-old boys have been charged with abducting a girl of the same age for a sexual attack.
The boys will appear in court today on a raft of serious charges - including abduction for sex - after they allegedly grabbed the girl and dragged her kicking and screaming into a west Auckland house.
The attack has shocked police who say abduction for sex is rarely seen in boys so young. The officer in charge of the investigation said he was "appalled" that boys so young were behind a crime like this.
The girl was walking along the road on Friday afternoon, when the boys allegedly grabbed her handbag. She was then dragged, kicking and screaming, inside a house.
Detective Sergeant Roger Small said the victim - who has known the boys since childhood but is not related to them - was taken into a bedroom where she was allegedly indecently assaulted.
After a short time she escaped from the house while the boys were distracted.
She ran to her home nearby, told her mother what had happened and police were called.
Mr Small said police used a search warrant on Saturday to find both the boys at the house where the alleged attack occurred.
They spent the rest of the weekend in custody after being interviewed.
Both are due to appear in the Waitakere District Court today charged with abduction for sex, assault with intent to commit sexual violation, indecent assault and aggravated robbery.
Mr Small said the girl was "pretty traumatised" but had good support from her parents, victim support and the child abuse team.
He praised her ability to keep calm during what would have been a traumatic situation.
"We commend her for her actions. She was able to maintain a cool head during the incident and when the opportunity arose she made a beeline for the door."
While police often dealt with young teens accused of indecent assault, Mr Small said the alleged offending in this case was particularly unusual for 14-year-olds.
"It's a horrendous level of offending at any age," he said. "I am appalled that someone of that age should be involved in an incident such as this."
It was particularly shocking, he added, because the two boys looked so young.
Detective Sergeant Megan Goldie, head of the Waitakere Child Abuse Team, said it was not unusual for the squad to be dealing with two or three serious cases where the offenders were under 12.
However, in many of those cases the victims were either relatives or close family friends and the offending had occurred because they were in the same house. In this case, the girl was allegedly dragged off the street.
In 1999, a 14-year-old boy was sentenced to seven and a-half years' imprisonment after he dragged a woman off the street with an adult. The teenager, who was armed with a bat and a knife, ripped off the woman's underwear and was the first of the two to rape her.
Children under 14 cannot be charged with any criminal offence except murder or manslaughter. The law provides that young people aged 14 to 16 who commit offences should be kept in the community so far as is practicable and consistent with the need to ensure the safety of the public.
