Sarangi Lim bashed a woman with a hammer following questions about child chomping cigarettes at Hamilton mall

A woman has admitted trying to bash a person to death with a hammer in a shopping centre car park after she was questioned about a young child eating cigarettes.

Sarangi Karamea Jaque-Oddell Lim had just bought the hammer when she began furiously hitting the woman on the back of the head with it.

The 28 year old would later tell police that she wanted to kill the victim.

“I did attempted murder and I don’t give a s***,” she said.

Sarangi Karamea Jaque-Oddell Lim, 28, hides her face in the High Court at Hamilton today where she admitted a charge of attempted murder. Photo / Belinda Feek

Lim was eventually charged with exactly that and pleaded guilty to it when she appeared in the High Court at Hamilton this morning.

‘She’ll be lucky she’s still alive'

According to the summary of facts, on June 27 last year, Lim was at The Base shopping centre in Hamilton where she bought several items including the hammer.

After finishing her shopping, she returned to the car park.

The victim questioned her about a child who had a packet of cigarettes in her hand and was eating them.

Lim became “angry and aggressive” and started shouting at the woman.

She retrieved her hammer and “forcefully” struck the woman in the back of the head.

The woman turned and tried to grab Lim to stop her, but Lim hit her again, hard, in the face and head.

Both the victim and Lim fell to the ground, with Lim on top of her and continuing to hit her with the hammer – and her fists – to the head and body.

It only came to a stop when members of the public intervened and dragged Lim off the victim who was bleeding heavily.

The woman was hospitalised with two large cuts to the back of her head and her upper right cheek.

She also sustained large bruises to her back and upper body.

When spoken to by police, and in her initial written statement, Lim said, “I just snapped and hit her ... I bought a hammer from The Warehouse at The Base and when I got back to the car, I hit her twice with the hammer”.

When questioned about her intent, Lim said: “to kill with intent”.

“She’ll be lucky she’s still alive,” she added in her interview. “So I lashed out today and I don’t give a f***.”

“I did attempted murder and I don’t give a s***.”

Lim was convicted by Justice Kiri Tahana and remanded back into custody ahead of her sentencing in June.

A restorative justice conference was also ordered if deemed appropriate.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 10 years and has been a journalist for 21.