Man punches Whangarei bar owner in face

Jess White, owner of The Old Stone Butter Factory, was punched in the face by a man while working security. Photo / Michael Cunningham

A female bar owner punched in the face by a patron is unimpressed with the man's Facebook apology.

The Old Stone Butter Factory owner Jess White was working security at the bar on Friday when she was assaulted.

About 1.45am on Saturday, near closing time, White turned up the lights and the music down to encourage people to leave.

A fight broke out in the courtyard and White was holding a man back when he punched her in the face.

"I could see it in his eyes, he was just wild, so I dodged it fairly well so it didn't cause a lot of damage - a bit of a blood nose and a bit of a sore nose.

"I'm so sick and tired of violence being so prevalent in society," she said.

CCTV cameras in the bar, which were only upgraded about a month ago, captured the assault and a photo of the man was posted on The Old Stone Butter Factory Facebook page about midday on Saturday.

Several people commented and the man in the image even messaged the page.

"He said 'oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit Jess, she must have been caught in the cross fires', and it wasn't quite like that, not really owning what he had done, no sense of ownership.

"He was like 'I'm sorry', and he was like 'I was just trying to defend myself,' but it was like no you weren't. It was excuse after excuse after excuse," she said.

White said customers pulled the man away from her, and a fight continued outside the bar. By that time the police had been called.

White said she was angry, but physically she was okay.

"When people lose control physically and are violent towards others, it's so common and it's just accepted as how it is.

"People think alcohol is a massive justification - 'oh I was just drunk'. If you can't handle yourself when you've got alcohol on board you should not be having alcohol.

"These are the types of people giving alcohol a bad rap and Whangarei night life a bad rap. And then when they're sober they think they can apologise for it and excuse the incident."

White has been in hospitality for 15 years and has owned The Old Stone Butter Factory for four years.

During that time she had been physically attacked only once before, by a drunk female.

She said council policy and bylaws were "never going to help".

"People's individual issues or education around alcohol and abuse will.

"It's an individual issue and unfortunately a lot of individuals have issues with alcohol and becoming abusive once alcohol's involved."

Police were investigating the assault and no arrests have been made.