Bottle thrown by woman during brawl hit police officer

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A woman who threw a bottle at police during a large brawl outside a Gisborne bar was identified by officers doing routines checks of licensed premises a week later.

Mother of three Ayla Loisandra Rawiri, 32, was one of about 50 people involved in a brawl outside Bar 59 when police were called at about 1.30am on Sunday, October 9, last year.

Video footage examined later by police showed Rawiri grabbing an empty bottle out of a gutter, raising it over her head, and hurling it at officers.

The bottle struck a constable in the back of the head, leaving him dazed and making him stumble.

Several people were arrested at the scene but Rawiri wasn’t identified until a week later when police spotted her out drinking again while they were doing routine checks of licensed premises.

Confronted with the footage, Rawiri said: “The person in the footage looks like me” and “someone took the bottle out of my hands in a way that looks like it was thrown”.

She subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting police, laid under the Crimes Act.

Sentencing her yesterday in Gisborne District Court, Judge Turitea Bolstad told Rawiri she was lucky not to be facing a more serious charge and was fortunate the officer didn’t get more seriously hurt.

“Police were just trying to do their job,” the judge said.

Rawiri’s inappropriate behaviour had put them and herself at risk.

The judge imposed 80 hours community work and six months supervision to include counselling and programmes as directed.

She noted Rawiri had previous similar convictions for fighting in public and disorderly behaviour during 2019.

Police supported supervision being imposed. Prosecutor Dave Walker said this latest offending and Rawiri’s previous history suggested her alcohol use was likely an issue for her.

Counsel Manaaki Terekia told the court Rawiri was soon to relocate to Auckland to get away from “a negative situation locally”.

She was unemployed but had ambitions to complete tertiary studies, which she had previously started in Australia.