K Rd ambulance attack: Hayley Hill sentenced for attacks on paramedic, teacher

A woman who has spent the past three months remanded in custody awaiting trial for separate attacks on a paramedic and a school teacher - and for forcing primary school children to flee as she rode through the group “at speed” on a bicycle - has been sentenced to intensive supervision.

Auckland Central resident Hayley Hill, 40, who has a history of mental health and addiction issues, was arrested for the ambulance incident in July and for the school outing interruption a month later.

She wept in Auckland District Court yesterday as Judge Evangelos Thomas emphasised that both emergency responders and school children deserve protection from the courts and that prison should be the only answer for such crimes.

“Paramedics deserve our respect and protection,” he said. “They’re defenceless. They’re all alone in that ambulance. If anyone attacks them, it falls to the courts to protect them.”

But he also noted the three months she had already served.

“That’s enough of a price to pay for what you’ve done,” he said.

According to court documents, Hill was being treated by paramedics on the evening of July 27 and was in the process of being taken from Karangahape Rd to nearby Auckland City Hospital when she “became agitated”, pulling the ambulance phone off of a paramedic and throwing it to the ground.

“As the victim attempted to use the phone again, the defendant again grabbed the phone and pulled it out of the wall of the ambulance,” court documents state.

“The defendant then stood up when the victim wasn’t looking and hit him on the left side of his face.”

She then opened the ambulance door and ran away.

Police caught up to her later and initially charged her with intentionally damaging the ambulance, which carries a maximum punishment of up to seven years’ imprisonment, and common assault, punishable by up to one year. She instead pleaded guilty to wilful damage, which carries a maximum punishment of three months’ imprisonment.

After her release on bail for the first set of charges, police encountered her again on the morning of August 26 after the incident involving the school children.

The group, from Takapuna Grammar School, had been visiting Aotea Square in Auckland Central, where Hill was riding a bicycle.

“The defendant started yelling and cursing at the students whilst riding her bike through them at pace, causing them to move out of the way to avoid being hit,” court documents state. “The defendant turned around and rode through the group of teachers, near missing them whilst continuing to verbally abuse and curse at them.”

She then turned the bike around again and “rammed” it into the group of teachers, resulting in minor bruising to one of them.

She left the scene and police encountered her a short time later, but she was unable to comment on what had happened because of ongoing “erratic and hysterical behaviour”, authorities noted.

Hill raised her hand from inside the courtroom dock as the agreed facts were discussed and said the bike had no brakes. Judge Thomas said he would take her at her word, but that still didn’t explain why she then turned around and rode in the direction of the group again.

The judge ordered her to serve 18 months of intensive supervision, with requirements she get assessed by a psychologist and attend any mental health, substance abuse or anger management programmes ordered by her probation officer.

It was the outcome defence lawyer Scott Leith had hoped for, noting to the court that despite the recent setbacks Hill had been taking active steps to address her mental health and addiction issues this year. Intensive supervision paired with family support should help to “put her back on the pathway she had formed for herself”, he said.

Neither of Hill’s victims attended the brief hearing.

In 2016 St John launched a “hands off our ambos” campaign in 2016, emphasising that abuse and assaults on paramedics were prosecutable offenses and noting that “ambulance officers can’t save your life if they are trying to protect their own”.

In the year leading to the campaign, nearly 3000 instances of abuse were reported - averaging 60 cases per week. Of those, there were about six to 10 serious assaults each month, the agency said at the time.

The Protection for First Responders and Prison Officers Bill, a private member’s bill proposed in 2018 by then-New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, would have created a mandatory sentence of at least six months’ imprisonment for assaults on paramedics. However, it failed to reach the third reading in 2020.

St John Mid North territory manager Wally Mitchell told NZME last year ambulance staff had extensive training and support to prevent and mitigate abuse and assaults. But it was “almost impossible” to “completely guard against violent and unpredictable behaviour”.

He said the organisation had a “zero tolerance policy” regarding abuse.

“Our ambulance officers and call handlers are caring, non-judgmental professionals who are here to help all New Zealanders,” he said.

“They have a right to feel safe at work.”

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.