By Jeremy Sollars
Officers from the Warwick Police Child Protection Unit (CPU) have investigated two separate assaults involving teens at Warwick’s Queens Park in recent days.
On Saturday, about 3pm, a 12-year-old girl was assaulted by another female teen at the park’s skate bowl.
The father of the victim told the Free Times his daughter had a mental disability and had been repeatedly targeted by the same group of individuals – which includes boys as well as girls – in recent months, as had his 10-year-old son who has a similar disability.
The family only moved to Warwick last August.
The father said his daughter had been riding her scooter at the skate park on Saturday afternoon and “everything was fine” until a group of teens approached her.
“One of the girls attacked her and beat her with her own helmet – she had mild concussion and spent Saturday night in hospital,” the father said.
It is understood CPU officers have been interviewing the attacker today, Monday 5 February.
Meanwhile a male juvenile involved in a separate assault in Warwick’s Queens Park last Thursday afternoon has been officially cautioned by police over the incident.
A Warwick Police spokesman said an 11-year-old boy approached a 13-year-old boy while walking home from school, about 3pm on Thursday 2 February, and “goaded” him into a fight, but the 13-year-old refused.
The 11-year-old then punched the other boy in the face and tackled him to the ground and then punched the victim in the back of the head before a passing female motorist verbally intervened, causing the perpetrator to run from the scene.
The incident was reported to police on Friday and the offender was later interviewed and cautioned by officers from the Child Protection Unit (CPU).
The 13-year-old was treated at Warwick Hospital for bruising and swelling to the face.
Police said the two boys attended the same school and were known to each other. A number of other witnesses, male and female, were present at the scene.
