On the 20th day of June 1954 information was sought from the police concerning the whereabouts of a girl 15-1/2 years of age who was missing from her home at Petone.  A few hours later this girl called at the Petone Police Station.  She stated that, being unhappy at home with her stepfather, she had, since the previous Christmas, been a member of what she called a “Milk Bar Gang” which (in her own words) met “mostly for sex purposes”; she had “become tired of the sex life”, was worried about the future of its younger members, and desired the police to break up the gang.  She gave the names of other members of the gang to the police.  By interviewing persons named by this girl, and then interviewing others whom they in turn named, the police were able, without difficulty, to obtain admissions and evidence of sexual misconduct by 65 children.

The procedure followed was for the parents to be visited at their residences by a constable in plain clothes, told the nature of the inquiry, and informed of the desire of the police to interview the children at the police station.  When a parent and child attended at the time appointed the parent was informed that, either through a sense of shame or fear of the parent, the child might not make a full disclosure of the facts known to her.  Some parents consented to their children being interviewed alone; others desired, and were allowed, to remain for the questioning.  After each interview the parents were permitted to read the statements of their children and to sign them before the children themselves were asked to sign.

The disclosures thus made, immediately recalled certain similar occurrences in the same district during October/November 1952.  It speedily became apparent that the 1954 situation was much more serious in that there were approximately three times as many children dealt with and that three of the children had been involved in the earlier trouble.

For purposes of comparison the Hutt Valley cases are set out as follows: 

Girls involved 6 17
Girls pregnant 2 ... 
Boys involved 11 37
Boys over eighteen ... 5
Charges laid 61 107
Committed to care of State 3 girls 5 girls
          
                                                  1 boy
Placed under supervision 3 girls 4 girls
                                               7 boys 7 boys
Admitted to probation 1 boy 6 boys
Admonished and discharged or otherwise
  dealt with 3 30
Dismissed in Children’s Court ... 3
Acquitted in Magistrate’s Court ... 1
Acquitted in Supreme Court ... 3
(One boy appeared in both Supreme Court and Magistrate’s Court; thus
showing 60 persons dealt with.)