Woman admits two racist dog attacks

Phillipa Parker. Photo / Supplied

A woman who set her dog on two people in drunken, racially motivated attacks says she was "trying to make a statement" on immigrants who she claimed were taking the jobs of New Zealanders.

Phillipa Ann Parker, 18, says she regrets what she did to her Asian victims "for the sake of my dogs and everything like that". "It was just one of those nights that I was just a bit too intoxicated. I know it was a pretty bad thing I did," she said.

Parker pleaded guilty in a Christchurch District Court this week to two charges of assault using a dog as a weapon in April. One victim suffered a puncture wound and deep scratches to her back and shoulder.

"It was kind of like I was trying to make a statement, because I do a lot of factory work and every factory that I have ever worked in there has been more immigrants than there has been Kiwis," she said.

Police say Parker was walking her bull mastiff-cross in Christchurch, with a man who had a second dog, in April. Parker verbally encouraged her leashed dog to attack a 38-year-old Filipino man, police said.

The victim turned his back and lifted his jacket over his head to protect himself. She unleashed her dog to allow it to chase the man.

Parker then came across an 18-year-old Japanese woman and shouted "f*** off home, you're not wanted here".

Parker encouraged her dog to attack and the verbal abuse continued as the woman huddled into a corner to try to protect herself from the dogs. The two dogs were impounded, and a judge will decide if they should be destroyed.

Parker is to be sentenced in March.

Steven Brian Donaldson, 25, denies charges of assault using a dog as a weapon arising from the same incidents.