Cop bashed in road rage incident

Photo / Richard Robinson

A top police officer has been injured in an apparent road rage clash.

Detective Inspector Greg Williams was allegedly bashed about the face, suffering a broken nose during the attack which happened while he was cycling in the suburb of Sumner.

Williams, who was off-duty, arrested the driver of the vehicle, who has been charged.

Christchurch-based Williams was the detective in charge of the unsolved murder of 15-year-old Kirsty Bentley, who went missing from her Ashburton home on New Year's Eve in 1998.

He also heads the investigation into the unsolved murder of Christchurch prostitute Mallory Manning, whose body was dumped in the Avon River in December 2008.

Canterbury area commander Superintendent Dave Cliff couldn't comment because the matter was before the courts.