Fourth officer attacked on job

File photo / APN

A Wairoa policeman became the fourth officer to be bashed on the job this month after he stopped two men suspected of carrying out a series of burglaries on the East Coast.

The constable was treated in hospital for head and leg injuries after he was allegedly beaten by the two men in Mahia, south of Gisborne on Boxing Day.

Hawke's Bay Today reported that the duo, aged 25 and 26, were remanded in custody after appearing in Gisborne District Court yesterday facing charges of aggravated injuring, assaulting police, resisting police, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle, escaping police custody and possessing an offensive weapon.

Police said that attack occurred after the constable stopped a car that was reported stolen from Mahia.

The officer's injuries would have been much worse but for two off duty police officers and members of the public coming to his aid.

Also on Boxing Day a Hamilton policeman was attacked by two teenagers armed with a machete and a knife when he went to a house at Pukete, north of Hamilton, after reports of people fighting with weapons.

Two boys, aged 14 and 16, appeared in Hamilton Youth Court yesterday accused of attempted murder and were remanded to a "secure house" in Rotorua until their next appearance at the end of the month.

Two weeks earlier Senior Constable Bruce Mellor, of Waiouru, was attacked from behind with a machete before being left for dead on the side of the road after he pulled over a stolen car on December 11.

He had a fractured skull, a broken eye socket and jaw, broken front teeth, cuts to his face, skull, arms and hands and a massive gash running around his forehead to his ear.

Two teenagers, aged 14 and 18, are in custody facing attempted murder charges.

In another Boxing Day attack, a police officer was set on by two teenage boys as he tried to arrest another teenager during a fight at Matauri Bay, 120km north east of Whangarei.

One teen has been charged with wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and the other with assault with intent to injure and aggravated assault.

- NZPA