Bravery Awards: Acts of valour

Craig Bennett

Sergeant Ngakina Jane Bertrand, Police

Sergeant Bertrand worked with the Royal Solomon Islands police to break up riots and protect women and children who were being used as a barrier by rioters in January last year. Constable Bertrand and local police managed to arrest the ringleaders. Despite being injured herself, she picked up prisoners and other injured people.


Sergeant George White, Police

Sergeant White, at the time an acting inspector, was involved in the same riots. He co-ordinated defensive positions for the police and led forays into the crowd to arrest the ringleaders. Every police officer involved was injured, but Sergeant White's actions helped quell the riots and restore order.


Police officer whose name is suppressed

In January 2003 a man who had mutilated two women near Thames fled to Auckland where he killed another man. He then took off in a car, but the police officer who was nearby with his dog chased him and reported his position to other officers. The man fired on the police officer several times, only just missing him, but the officer continued to report his assailant's position despite the threat to his safety.


Keran Durrant, formerly of RNZ Navy and Tyson Job, RNZ Navy

During lifeboat drill on HMNZS Endeavour in August 2004 in Sydney Harbour, a lifeboat broke loose and landed in the water upside down. Despite both being injured, former Able Hydrographic Systems Operator Durrant and Able Chef Job helped their shipmates get clear of the sinking lifeboat before escaping themselves.


Constable Craig Bennett, Police

The off-duty Dunedin constable saved the lives of Mary-Jane McKinlay (then 22) and her two children Aidan and Juliette (then 5 and 3) in May last year, when he smashed into their burning home and dragged them to safety. After getting the children out he learned their mother was still inside and although driven back by smoke he returned moments later with a fire fighter who helped him move her Ms McKinlay out of the blazing building.


Staff Sergeant Dion Palmer, RNZ Army

Staff Sergeant Palmer saw a man and a boy in difficulties at Himetangi Beach. He swam out 150m and grabbed the boy, but when the man didn't follow, went back with lifeguards in an unsuccessful attempt to find him.


Joan Diane Taylor

Mrs Taylor and her husband found a young woman being dragged into a car by a man in Nelson last November. Mrs Taylor demanded that the woman be let go and told the man she had called police and an ambulance, distracting him so woman could escape.

The man then hit Mrs Taylor on the head, and she split it open on the path as she fell. Her actions probably saved the woman from serious injury.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES, STAFF REPORTER