'Heartbroken' mum speaks out after daughter, 13, allegedly approached for sex on way home from school

The van the man was driving who allegedly approached the 13-year-old. Photo / Supplied

A sickened mother wants other parents in the Manurewa area to know a man allegedly tried to lure her daughter into his van for sex last week.

Police are investigating after the man approached the 13-year-old, who was walking alone, multiple times in the Thompson Terrace area after school on Friday.

The man initially offered the girl $50 for sexual favours, before driving around the block and offering her $100 to get into his van with him.

The man who allegedly approached the girl was described as a large, Pacific Island man with dark skin and short curly hair. Photo / Supplied

The girl described the man as a large Pacific Island man with dark skin and short curly hair. CCTV footage also captured the man stopping to talk to the girl on Thompson Terrace.

The emotional mother, who asked not to be named, told the Herald she hoped speaking out would help lead to the man's arrest.

"I posted [about it on Facebook] because I didn't know what to do, I posted it to try and get some help to catch this person," she said.

Thompson Terrace, Manurewa. Photo / Google

"I've been imagining if there were other people in that van. They could have grabbed her and all sorts of yucky stuff went through my mind.

"I'm disgusted, it's yuck and I'm really heartbroken that this could happen to my daughter, to one of my kids."

She said her children had been educated since primary school about strangers and to not get into the cars of people they didn't know.

Police told the Herald they had received a report about the incident and their inquiries into what happened were ongoing.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, a man was arrested after allegedly trying to snatch a child who was walking to school with a parent in Favona, South Auckland.

The mother of the Manurewa incident said it was hard enough for her to talk about the approaches, let alone her daughter to confess what had happened.

After the approaches her daughter was very distressed, she said.

"It's quite hard for her … [but] she's doing a lot better," the mother said.

"She usually walks home slowly, casually, but this day she ran home … she was huffing and puffing and ran past me and inside.

"It took her a while to tell me. I couldn't hear what she was saying but my elder daughter heard and said that she was approached by a man."

The mother hoped the man who approached her daughter didn't see which house she ran into after she fled.

Her daughter didn't get the number plate of the man's vehicle but described it as a black, boxed-shaped family van.

The mother wasn't sure if the CCTV footage from a property on Thompson Terrace captured the number plate either but it had been handed into police, she said.