Kidnap girl: The man hurt my heart

The five-year-old girl allegedly abducted in Maungatapu told her rescuer "the man hurt my heart" when asked if she was okay.

Sergeant Dave Thompson, of Greerton police, who allegedly found the five-year-old girl at Kaiate Falls on December 15, yesterday gave evidence at the trial of Tauranga man Tony Douglas Robertson.

Robertson has denied charges of abducting the girl for the purposes of sexual connection, an alternative charge of kidnapping with intent to confine the girl and three charges of performing indecent acts on her.

He has also denied robbing a boy of his cellphone and attempting to kidnap two other children on December 14 last year.

Mr Thompson described going to the Kaiate Falls area to look for the girl after police were alerted to the alleged abduction. He said he knew the area well from his experience with Search and Rescue and described it as isolated, although close to town.

While there, Mr Thompson approached a white car, where he saw a male leaning over to the passenger's seat, from the driver's seat, he said.

He stopped his car about two metres from Robertson's car and as he approached the vehicle on foot he saw a young girl in the passenger's seat.

"She was in a distressed state," he said. "She was crying and had tears rolling down her cheeks."

Mr Thompson said he asked the man's name and he replied "Tony Robertson".

He then asked Robertson, 19, what he was doing and he told him that he was taking the girl to school but his car had boiled and stopped, he said.

He touched the bonnet of Robertson's car to see if it was hot and it was not, he said.

Mr Thompson said he asked Robertson what the girl's name was and he replied but gave an incorrect surname, prompting the girl to say "no it's not, that's not my name", Mr Thompson said.

Robertson told Mr Thompson that he knew the girl's mother and brother but could not provide her mother's name and then gave an incorrect name for her brother. The girl again corrected him, he said.

Mr Thompson described holding the girl's hand as he walked her to his unmarked police car before telling her he was a police officer and that she was safe.

"I asked if she was all right," Mr Thompson said.

"She said to me `the man hurt my heart'. I asked her if she knew the man and she said no."

Mr Thompson then called for police back up.

Robertson told Mr Thompson he had driven to the area for the purpose of ``scoring a tinny'' of cannabis, he said.

"He (Robertson) then stated to me that he had found the little girl standing on the side of the road and, because he knew her, was concerned for her safety, or concerned as to why she was there."

He told Mr Thompson he intended to take the girl to Maungatapu School.

As Mr Thompson spoke, Robertson, who had been shaking his head at the evidence, interrupted saying to him: "why don't you tell the truth, man?"

Justice Patrick Keane told Robertson to "keep quiet", explaining that it was not in his interests to say anything.

During cross-examination, Robertson's defence counsel, Thomas Sutcliffe, asked Mr Thompson about evidence he gave detailing how Robertson allegedly started the car while in Mr Thompson's presence.

Mr Sutcliffe asked Mr Thompson if he could be mistaken and that Robertson said he knew the girl's brother, not mother. He also questioned Mr Thompson about the route he drove to get to the Kaiate Falls area.

Also giving evidence yesterday was the teacher who alerted police that the girl got into a man's car and a mechanic who checked the car for signs that it had been overheating but found no problems after using two different tests.

Two residents of Rocky Cutting Rd, near Kaiate Falls, also gave evidence, one detailing how she saw a car similar to Robertson's the day before the girl was allegedly abducted.

She said while she was at home about 400m away, she watched a man get out of the car and pace up and down a cliff ledge in an "agitated" manner after parking his car at the side of the road.

The woman and her husband _ both Crown witnesses _ called police the following day after seeing the story and a photograph of the man's car in the Bay of Plenty Times in relation to the abduction, she said.

Two Environmental Science and Research scientists from Auckland also gave evidence and described how two probable samples of saliva had been found on the girl's clothing _ one of them the girl's and the other a male's.

The trial was to continue today hearing more evidence, including from the boy who Robertson allegedly robbed of a cellphone the day before the girl's abduction.