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A man has been charged with aggravated robbery and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after an 85-year-old war veteran was attacked last week.
Veteran Eric Brady was left with severe bruising and broken jaw bones after the attempted carjacking in Papatoetoe.
Detective Sergeant Shaun Vickers of the Counties Manukau Crime Squad said an 18-year-old Manukau City resident was arrested yesterday on unrelated matters and was later charged over the assault.
He will appear in Manukau district Court on Monday morning,
Mr Vickers said Mr Brady's family had been informed and he was grateful for a "great deal of valuable information from the public".
A police spokesman said officers at the Station Rd rugby league grounds in Papatoetoe approached the suspect because he matched the description of Mr Brady's assailant. As officers approached, the man turned and ran.
Earlier that day, Mr Brady had recovered enough to sit up in bed at Middlemore Hospital and label his attacker "a bit of a coward".
He told how on the night of his attack he was coming to the end of his evening routine - a careful drive to the Papatoetoe RSA, a couple of drinks, and a careful drive home again.
Brady said it pays to be careful: "There are lots of louts around our area."
And as he left, he met one, who attacked him in an assault captured on CCTV cameras. Armed with a knife, the man tried to force him from his car. Instead of giving in, and with injuries from a dislocated shoulder, Brady fought back in the only way he could - leaning on the car horn to call for help.
"No one from the RSA heard the horn or came out. He ran away in the first instance and when he saw no one was coming he came back.
"When he came back that was when he did the damage. He pulled me out of the car."
Brady was left with serious facial injuries, including a broken jaw, cracked cheek bones, bruising and swelling, and the loss of some teeth.
He said he didn't feel scared at the time, but felt he "should have been able to manage the situation".
"I told him to bugger off among other things. I think I used the f-word with him."
CCTV footage shows Brady thrown to the ground. From there, he tried to make his way back inside the RSA but couldn't get through the door.
Before he made his escape, his assailant returned to ask him how to start the car: "He couldn't start it because it was immobilised."
Brady, who fought German forces in World War II, said throughout the ordeal he just wanted to get away.
"I didn't have a proper fight with him but also I have a dislocated shoulder that hasn't healed properly. All I wanted to do was to try and push him off me."
The days since the assault had been filled with pain. Among his injuries, doctors later discovered a deep cut into Brady's elbow.
In the aftermath, Brady said he had been "thinking that it all could be avoided".
"All this for a car that wasn't worth much anyway sort of thing. It wasn't an expensive car."
Despite the attack and the surgery that followed, Brady said he felt "real, real lucky".
He is expected to go home tomorrow.
