A woman has been left with several injuries, including a fractured cheek, broken nose and blurred vision after being punched in the head at a West Auckland pub.
Heather Bonner says she was hit on the right side of her face by a "low-life cowardly man" while having a smoke outdoors at the Te Atatu Tavern on Friday.
The 56-year-old said the single blow, which she described as a "king hit", left her with 16 stitches around her right eyebrow - where her glasses dug in - three fractures in her cheek, a broken nose, blurry vision in her right eye, and teeth out of alignment.
Bonner, who is originally from Trinidad, went to the pub at around 9.30pm to have a few drinks with a female friend, play pool and listen to music.
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Later, she was sitting in the pub's outdoor area at about 11pm having a smoke when she says she was hit from the side. She remained conscious, but slumped down, stunned, with her head between her knees.
Bonner believed she was hit by a man, one of a group of four she had seen nearby, but she didn't see him. She spoke to another man who told her he knew the identity of her attacker but he refused to name him to her for fear of reprisal.
The police told the Herald they had received reports of the assault and were investigating.
Bonner was taken to Waitakere Hospital and was discharged yesterday. She was referred to the eye clinic at the Green Lane Clinical Centre and to Middlemore Hospital for her facial fractures.
She doesn't know what could have led to her attack, but wondered if it might have been linked to an incident earlier in the evening inside the bar when a woman started hitting her. She further wonders if that was linked to her sitting briefly in the lap of a man - a friend - in wheelchair.
She did this to hug him - she suffers sciatica, which meant it was easier to sit on his lap to give a hug, rather than bending down - but when he objected she immediately got up.
Bonner is calling for witnesses to her bashing to contact the police.
"There is no excuse or justification for this type of cowardly behaviour," she said. "I know there are witnesses out there."
She said the man who hit her "obviously has unresolved issues" and if not called to account could be at risk of harming another person worse than her, or even killing someone.
The tavern is owned by the Waitakere Licensing Trust, whose spokesman Simon Wickham, chief executive of The Trusts management company, said he had been given some details of the incident.
"We will speak with the police about it further on Monday and investigate it further ourselves."
"I have been at the trust eight years. I'm not aware of another serious assault in recent times. Generally the tavern is enjoyed by a bunch of locals in pretty good spirit. It [assault] is not something the tavern is known for."
