Three charged over Oamaru police beating

File photo. / NZH

Police have charged three men after an assault on an officer at an Oamaru drink-driving checkpoint last night.

A 20-year-old man would appear before the court on charges of unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, excess breath alcohol, failing to accompany a police officer, resisting arrest and aggravated injuring.

Two 18-year-old men would also appear - one charged with aggravated injuring, another with the theft of a Drager breath testing device, stolen during the assault. The device has yet to be recovered, Oamaru Senior Sergeant Jason McCoy said.

The policeman beaten during the attack was released from hospital today, with injuries to his face, leg and arm.

"This was an unprovoked attack. In a community like Oamaru, this incident is very unusual and has a big impact," Mr McCoy said.

Two other people were helping police with their inquiries, he said.

The Oamaru attack followed two other assaults on police during the weekend - one in south Auckland on Friday, in which an off-duty officer was beaten unconscious by a group of youths when trying to stop a brawl, another near Whangarei on Saturday, in which a suspected drunk driver allegedly bit off an officer's lip.

The first assault of the weekend took place on Friday night, when off-duty police officer John Connolly was beaten unconscious by a group of youths when intervening in a fight between two teenaged girls near his Tuakau house.

The constable is recovering in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital. He suffered a fractured skull, a punctured lung, serious facial injuries, a broken jaw, a broken ankle and missing teeth.

He was having a metal plate attached to his head today to fix his fractured skull and face, a police spokesman said.

The injured officer was rescued from the sustained beating by a 15-year-old girl who dragged him from the melee.

Police said they were continuing the process of interviewing witnesses to the incident and expected to make arrests by Tuesday.

In the second attack in Whangarei, an officer's lip was torn off by a suspected drunk driver, sending the policeman's colleagues scrambling on their knees to find it.

The driver was stopped in Kamo, on the northern outskirts of Whangarei, about 11.15pm on Saturday.

Reo Rangipohewa Uerata, 29, appeared in Whangarei District Court on six charges relating to the incident, including assault, resisting arrest and disfigurement by grievous bodily harm.

He was also charged with driving while disqualified, refusing to allow police to take a blood specimen, and threatening grievous bodily harm to a second officer.

Uerata is due back in court tomorrow.

This morning, Prime Minister John Key said Police Minister Judith Collins was looking at possible changes to the law, including tougher penalties.

"If you assault a police officer in the course of their work then you would face a tougher sentence," he told TV One's Breakfast programme today.

"We hold our police officers in high respect and rightfully so... And I think they are entitled to know that they are treated by society in that way."

He believed that drugs would be behind some of the latest violence.

"I mean when you get barbaric acts like biting off a police officer's lips that's just not normal behaviour, you have to think that something is driving that."

He did not support giving the now Taser-armed police firearms.

"The problem with arming the police is one, those arms can be turned back on them, and the second thing is because of the finality of that they are very reluctant to pull those weapons so that a split second might make the real difference, so I am not a big proponent of arming the police."

- NZPA