Police are investigating how two men attempted to force Grace Preston, 15, into their car in broad daylight.The English girl, from Woking, was walking home from school at 2.30pm when two men confronted her outside her local supermarket.The ‘Spanish-looking’ men in their late 20s, ran around in front of her as she walked along the pavement, but she managed to run into crowded shopping centre Las Jarales and hide in a bar. one of the men had chased after her, but didn’t spot her cowering in Harley’s Bar.
“You never think it’s going to be your son or daughter until it happens to you.”
“It was terrifying, and I just fled,” she explained. “I ran into a local bar and noticed that the man followed me and looked inside to see if he could find me.”
Grace, who attends the European Sixth Form College in Calahonda, then called her parents who were in the supermarket next door.They straight away called the police, who are now investigating the case.Grace’s father Quentin Preston, an architect, was shocked by the attack. He said: “You never think it’s going to be your son or daughter until it happens to you.“But they are teenagers. We can’t watch them all the time,” he added.The architect, who has lived in La Cornisa with his wife Helen for the last six years, insists that young people should not go out alone.
He is pleased that Grace’s school is taking new measures to protect its pupils. Barbara Dyson, deputy director, confirmed: “We have told the students not to go home alone and to note down the number plates of suspicious cars.”
She added that the school had also appealed to the town hall for more security at home time.Teenager Amy Fitzpatrick, 15, went missing nearly two years ago from the very same area. She has still not been found. More alarmingly, it is the second attempted abduction to have taken place in Mijas Costa on the same day.
“Arabic-looking” man attempted to force a 19-year-old English girl into his car later that night.The incident happened on the Avenida Espana, a major thoroughfare, at 10pm.Local barmaid, Rachel Jones, 19, revealed that her English friend, 19, had been walking up to see her boyfriend in Calahonda. “This guy grabbed her and tried to pull her into the car, but she smacked him in the face and managed to prize herself free and run off, while the guy fled in his car.”Two weeks ago two teenage boys were also targeted in nearby Riviera del Sol in broad daylight.