Arrest after domestic dispute

Police at the property in Tikipunga where the interior of house was wrecked in a violent incident. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Police arrested a Whangarei man after the walls and doors of a house were stabbed while two young children and their mother were in another room.

Officers were called to the Korau Road address in Tikipunga about 8am yesterday, after neighbours reported a domestic dispute.

The officer-in-charge, Sergeant Shane Turner, said three officers arrived to find the 29-year-old man agitated and holding a silver chef-style knife with a blade about 21cm long.

"The house had been smashed up, with stab wounds through walls and doors, and broken windows and chairs."

When police presented a Taser, the man entered another room where his partner and her two children - a nine-month-old and a five-year-old - were, shutting the hallway door after him.

The man then opened the door slightly and was pepper-sprayed, and then hand-cuffed, Mr Turner said.

"I spoke to him and he calmed down quite quickly. It was a really good outcome."

The mother and children were taken to see family members, and the man was scheduled to appear in Whangarei District Court yesterday on charges of threatening behaviour, possession of an offensive weapon and threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm to police.