Sergeant's intuition stops predator

ALLEY CAT: Hastings police officer Kevin Stewart at the entrance to the former alley where he stopped a sex attack. PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

When a judge acclaimed Hastings officer Sergeant Kevin Stewart for "outstanding police work" in stopping a probable rape while on traffic patrol in the dead of night, the officer was on 9-to-5 desk duty.

But Mr Stewart, with fewer than 20 years in the police from a previous Army career, is used to variety - from saving the intoxicated mid-20s victim in February 2014 to saving the life of a wounded president in Timor-Leste back in 2008, for which he was recognised with a QSM in the New Year Honours a few months later.

Having served two police stints abroad, in the Solomon Islands in 2005 and then as operations commander of Bercora Station in the former East Timor, it was the variety of the job that placed Mr Stewart on the spot when he followed a hunch and found a man in an alley off Heretaunga St with his pants down, standing over a prone woman who was screaming, "Leave me alone".

Mr Stewart said this week he had been on patrol and in charge of road policing in the Hastings area when he heard on the police communications system of groups of apparent seasonal workers lingering on the streets of the city as bars closed on the Sunday morning of February 9 last year.

The task had been to look after the "arterial routes" and target drink-driving, but Mr Stewart found himself directing his units into the inner-city because of possible disorder as club and bar-goers emptied on to the streets.

As he drove down Heretaunga St, he saw what seemed to be two men leading a woman towards an alley and U-turned to investigate.

"You never know what you're going to find," he said. "Usually it will turn out to be someone urinating against a wall or a couple of people fighting. This time I found this offender ... it was obvious what was going to happen."

He called for back-up and the woman got to her feet and stumbled out of the alley to be met by another officer arriving at the scene, as Mr Stewart "rounded up" the man and an associate who was in the area.

"The first thing was to make sure she was safe, and I'm really happy about being there at the right time," Mr Stewart said.

"This is the result, but it could have been worse."

This week 25-year-old Mathieu Batick, from Vanuatu, was sentenced to two years and seven months' jail. Without any previous convictions, he had denied a charge of indecent assault and one of assault with intent to commit sexual violation, but a jury found him guilty after a Napier District Court trial in August.