Crash may have caused 'assault' injuries, court told

Police officer Richard Soper, 38, is on trial in Whangarei District Court charged with the assault of Wiremu Henare

A doctor who examined a man who claimed he was assaulted by a police officer after a car crash, has told the court the man's injuries could have been caused by the crash or any other blunt force trauma.

Police officer Richard Soper, 38, is on trial in Whangarei District Court charged with the assault of Wiremu Henare, now aged 18, on August 27, last year. Soper has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

On the night of August 27 last year, Henare and an associate went to an elderly woman's home in Maunu and Henare hit the 68-year-old woman several times with her walking stick before taking her Audi, the court was told.

When police tried to stop him he took off, reaching speeds of 160km/h before the car crashed at One Tree Point.

Henare alleges that Soper punched him up to 10 times in the back of the police car while on the way back to Whangarei following his arrest.

Dr Damian Wojcik examined Henare at Whangarei Police Station an hour or so after his arrest and told the court yesterday that Henare told him during the examination that he had been assaulted in the back of the police car.

But, Dr Wojcik said, the injuries Henare had on him, bruising to the face, neck and cheek, were just as likely to have been caused by the impact of the car crash as they were from an assault.

Also yesterday, Grant Egan the police handler of the dog Brutus, who tracked Henare after he fled the crashed car, said they caught up with Henare after about 1km, and when he was about 15 metres from the fleeing driver he let Brutus go.

The dog brought Henare down after biting his calf and, when Mr Egan reached them, Henare was yelling in pain and trying to pull the dog's head off his leg.

Mr Egan said when he arrived Henare was sitting among a pile of rubble.

The defended hearing, before Judge Stan Thorburn, is expected to finish this week.