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A young woman suffered serious physical and emotional injuries after she was snatched from Auckland University by an attacker who kept her hostage and bound to a tree in the Waitakere Ranges.
The woman, who competes in a sport at a senior level, escaped by apparently using a
nail file to loosen her bonds and raising the alarm.
The woman spent several days in hospital, police said yesterday. Police are still hunting for the man, 3 1/2 months after the attack, who the woman did not know.
Police yesterday refused to answer most of the Herald on Sunday's questions about the case, including whether there was a sexual element, whether they had a suspect, or even if they had any DNA evidence.
The woman, who works at the university, is still distraught and did not wish to comment. Police said she was receiving counselling.
Police believe the case is legitimate but took a month to issue a scant press release about the June attack and it went to only a handful of media outlets.
It said the man they were looking for had light blue eyes with very fine and straight ginger eyebrows; had bad skin with large pores; was in his mid 40s; had a well-groomed beard, moustache and hair; had ginger hair and beard; was of stocky build and average height.
The July 24 press release said the man was "reported to have kidnapped a woman from Auckland University and taken her to the bush in the Waitakere Ranges where she was held overnight... She escaped the next morning".
Detective Tim Traviss said yesterday the woman was taken from a University of Auckland office building around the start of the work day.
She remembers little of the incident until she regained consciousness in the Waitakere Ranges to find herself bound to the tree.
After she escaped and raised the alarm, Traviss said she spent several days in hospital.
Four officers were involved in the investigation, he said, although they were also working on four homicides, which took priority.
Asked what advice he would give women, he said: "They need to be aware of their surroundings and aware of people round them, and take normal precautions for their safety."
Neither Traviss nor the officer in charge of the case, Constable Simon Matheson, would elaborate on details.
Yesterday, Auckland University spokesman Bill Williams said the incident "rings a bell very vaguely" but claimed not to know any details.
Asked what measures the university security took in response, he said "the facts of what happened would need to be clear before there was a response".
