Glancing down a leafy residential street in Oxford in the direction of the junction from where a 14-year-old schoolgirl was abducted in broad daylight, the look of dread was all too evident on the face of one local mother.
“Of course we’re worried,” said the woman, who happened to have been passing the spot at around the same time on Wednesday. On Thursday evening she had sat down with her own daughter, who is eight, to have the conversation that every parent fears.
“We told her that if anyone tries to force you into a car then you should bite, kick, scream … basically just do anything that it takes to raise the alarm.”
Such is the new reality on the streets of Oxford’s Summertown area, where the hunt for two men who raped the 14-year-old in a car after abducting her on her way to school entered its third day.
Thames Valley police are appealing for witnesses after the victim was found at midday on Wednesday knocking on doors in the Marston area of the city. Police said the girl was extremely traumatised by her ordeal and was unable to provide a description of her attackers, other than that they were white men whom she did not know.
According to police, the key to the investigation is the silver car used in the abduction, possibly a Volkswagen hatchback. Members of the public who were in the Banbury Road area at around 8.25am have been urged to come forward with any footage from car dashcams or cycle helmet cams.
A busy road running through one of the city’s most prosperous areas, there would have been no shortage of pedestrians on either side, although early-morning traffic would have been in abundance around the car used by the men, one of whom was said to have hugged the victim before she was dragged inside.
An increase in the police presence was palpable on Friday as uniformed officers occasionally cruised by in vans. Schoolchildren have been told to travel in groups.
The street leading to the school involved could not have been calmer on late Friday morning. Save for dog walkers, the only sign of activity was the occasional cleaner or gardener coming out of gated mansions, many of which have CCTV cameras.
Chris Price, the headteacher of one local school, the Cherwell school, praised pupils on Thursday for their response to the incident.
“Most of you will, by now, be aware of the reports of the abduction of and sexual assault on a schoolgirl in Oxford yesterday morning,” he said in a message to parents. “Given these circumstances I thought it important to write to you again at the end of a day which has been worrying for all of us. I wanted to stress how sensible our students have been – they showed great maturity and made the most of their learning as usual.”
Pupils were not in class on Friday, an inset day. Price promised they would receive regular advice in tutor time and assemblies.
Andrew Gant, a local Liberal Democrat councillor, said a strong sense of community was a feature of the area.
“We have our fair share of burglaries, and things like bicycle thefts are a perennial problem here in north Oxford, but in general there’s a sense that this is a safe place,” he said. “My own daughter attended a school very near there and has walked up and down that road for the whole of her school life. It’s just one of those moments of the day where you would assume everything is going to be fine. That’s why this is so shocking.
“It’s a very busy road between two big schools and this would have taken place at a time when hundreds of children would have been going on their way. At 8.25am in broad daylight, it’s unthinkable.”
