\u201cThe reality is stark \u2013 one more strike, one more kick and the outcome could have been fatal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police said they believed the youngsters might have been influenced by online trends that \u201cencourage and glorify\u201d these kinds of assaults.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us be clear, this behaviour is completely unacceptable. These youths are old enough to understand exactly what they are doing, and choosing to engage in harmful, trend-driven behaviour that endangers others will not be excused, and it will carry serious consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four accused are due to appear in the Invercargill Youth Court, with police expecting to lay more charges and possibly make further arrests.<\/p>\n
Robertson said investigators\u2019 hard work had led to \u201cswift accountability\u201d for the alleged offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to acknowledge the dedication of the investigation team, who have worked tirelessly to identify and apprehend those responsible in a very short period of time.\u201d <\/p>\n
Members of the public are being warned to be extra cautious online and are encouraged to come forward with any information.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are urging the public to take care when engaging with people online and to report any suspicious behaviour immediately.\u201c<\/p>\n
She said police will continue to pursue anyone involved in similar offending and are committed to protecting the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe reality is stark \u2013 one more strike, one more kick and the outcome could have been fatal.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,74,29944,6015,11924,13119,5660,1558,1862,3011,81696,305,18390,121444,7055,23336,111,43,139,69,1118,28703,1642,39541,47066,672,61,11418,13797,3382,8844,20424,1455,3608,102],"class_list":["post-435014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accused","tag-after","tag-alleging","tag-apps","tag-arrested","tag-assaults","tag-attacks","tag-been","tag-dating","tag-four","tag-harmful","tag-have","tag-invercargill","tag-investigators","tag-linked","tag-lure","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-offending","tag-online","tag-spate","tag-teenagers","tag-teens","tag-to","tag-trends","tag-used","tag-using","tag-victims","tag-violent","tag-warning","tag-were","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}