Editorial: Stop this man in his tracks

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

Police are appealing for witnesses after yet another sexual assault in broad daylight.
That's another woman traumatised, her friends and family no doubt shocked and worried about her.

The woman was not physically harmed but goodness knows what effect this will have on her.

The assault happened in Ahuriri, Bluff Hill on Monday afternoon around 4.30pm.
I've read some pretty harsh comments on social media about victims of assaults that happen in the early hours of the morning but no one can possibly say that this woman shouldn't have been out alone at this time of the day.

It's the time of day that lots of people are out and about either on foot, biking or in vehicles.

She should have been perfectly safe. Instead some creep, who has been described as a 20-year-old Caucasian, thought it was okay to sexually assault her.

Because of Harvey Weinstein sexual assaults have been all over the news recently.
All it took was one brave woman to finally speak out against this man to stop his disgusting behaviour.

Behaviour that has been going on for years and years - behaviour that many people knew about but for reasons we will never know chose not to say speak out against him. I'm not talking about the victims here.

The person who assaulted the woman in Ahuriri needs to be stopped now.

People who do this type of thing often boast about it to their mates. They think they are tough, they aren't.

Someone out there knows who did this.

It's not narking to go to the police - just think how you would feel if it was your mother, wife, sister, niece or friend.

If he gets away with it the chances are he'll strike again and next time the victim might not be lucky enough to escape without physical injury.

It's bad enough that we have to lock everything up for fear of theft these days, we certainly don't want to get to the stage where we are afraid to go out on the streets alone in the middle of the afternoon.