Woman on working holiday assaulted in Epsom shared accommodation, man charged

Lu Yung Tung was staying in a room at a house in Epsom and said she was bashed last Thursday by a man living in the same accommodation. Photo / Supplied

A Taiwanese woman on a working holiday in New Zealand was left with several bruises, a black eye and head injuries after being attacked in shared accommodation in Auckland.

Lu Yung Tung, 30, was staying in a room at a house in Epsom and said she was bashed last Thursday by a man who lived in the same accommodation.

Lu said she first felt unsafe when she heard an argument between a man and a woman next door in the middle of the night. After asking them to keep it down, Lu says the man punched her door and yelled at her.

"I felt unsafe," says Lu.

"He punched my door really hard and he was swearing at me a lot and I heard them always fighting.

"I was scared and sent a message to the owner ... if he could come to help me."

She was told to call the police but when they arrived, the couple had left and there was nothing the police could do.

According to Lu, the landlord had agreed to ask the couple to move out because she felt unsafe but it never happened.

The landlord of the property, Yong Liu, told the Herald that he didn't do anything because the police couldn't prove who had punched the door and what had happened.

The next evening, Lu bumped into the same man who punched her door at the shared bathrooms, where she was threatened.

"I didn't want to talk to him at all because I'm going home soon and when I was with him he came very close to me and he said to me, 'If you knock on my door again, I'm going to break your arm'.

"I just wanted to leave but he closed the toilet door and he stopped me [from] leaving twice."

Lu said she felt "panicked and scared" and decided to use her pepper spray, which she started carrying with her after the first incident.

She said the spray didn't affect the man, who then punched her in the face multiple times causing her to fall to the ground where she was attacked further.

"I was in the corner and he kicked me and punched my hands and tried to grab my spray ... I was screaming and asking for help."

Another neighbour helped her after the attack and called the police.

Lu wasn't seriously injured and has since recovered but said she still feels angry and helpless about what happened.

"After the attack happened, I'm trying to do as much as I can because I don't want these kinds of thing to happen or worse [to others].

"People should know what happened."

A police spokesperson confirmed to the Herald police responded to an incident at an address in Epsom on August 31.

"A 31-year-old man has been charged with assault and will appear in Auckland District Court on September 27."