Palmerston North Police are investigating three serious crimes that occurred between the 14th to16th of November, 2014 and are appealing for anyone with information about these incidents to contact Police.
The first incident occurred overnight between Friday 14 and Saturday 15 November. A male gained entry to a house on Ranfurly Street while no one was home and burgled the property. Police were notified and are working with the occupants to determine what was taken.
At approximately 10:30pm on Saturday 15 November, a male and female couple, aged in their late 20s, were walking home from town via an arcade on King Street in the CBD when they passed a male and female acting suspiciously. The couple were a few metres away from their apartment building when two males appeared and demanded money from them.
The situation then escalated and one of the male offenders assaulted the male victim. During this time the female has run into the apartment building to get help from her male flatmate. Both the female and her flatmate have gone back to help the male victim and by this time the offenders had decamped from the scene in an unknown vehicle.
"A short time later this vehicle re-entered King Street and approached the couple and the male flatmate. There were three males and a female in the vehicle and two of the males are believed to be those responsible for the earlier incident. Another altercation has taken place and the male flatmate was seriously assaulted by the group who then left the scene in their vehicle."
Police were called and attended with ambulance. The victim, aged 28, sustained significant head injuries and was air-lifted to Wellington Hospital. He remains in a serious condition and officers have not yet spoken to him.
Detective Sergeant Dave Thompson, officer in charge of the investigations says Police have spoken to some witnesses and are in the process of piecing together the sequence of events that led up to the cowardly attack and burglary.
"We still don't have all the details and a priority for us over the next 48 hours is to follow up on our lines of inquiry for both crimes, including conducting an area canvas, reviewing CCTV footage, and working on a description of the offenders and also the vehicle involved in the assault.
"The area of the city where the assault occurred is very busy over the weekend and there are a large number of apartment buildings in the area. I strongly encourage anyone that saw any suspicious activity in the Ranfurly Street and King Street areas on the Saturday evening to contact Police immediately."
Approximately seven hours later on Sunday morning (16 November) at about 5:30am a male entered a house on Linton Street and sexually assaulted a young woman in her bedroom. She managed to fight the offender off and he then decamped from the scene. The woman aged in her 20s alerted the other occupants in the property and Police were contacted.
"The victim has been through a horrifying ordeal and along with her family and friends Police are continuing to support her. We are committed to identifying and locating those responsible for the offending.
"There is cause for us to investigate potential links between these three incidents specifically in relation to proximity of the timings and we appeal for anyone that may have any information about any of these crimes to contact Police," says Detective Sergeant Thompson.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Thompson on (06) 213 9593. Alternatively information can be provided anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Media enquiries should be referred to Communications Manager Sara Stavropoulos on 027 702 0850.