Police charge woman with Waiheke assault, but say incident was not 'random'

Police say the assault on Max Kumar, pictured with partner Rhiannon Barr and son Leonardo, was not random. Photo / Supplied

A woman has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a man on Waiheke Island amid claims a young family were attacked on their way to a beach.

But police say it was not an isolated incident and the people had previously been involved in a verbal spat on Belgium St in Ostend, one of Waiheke's main shopping streets, earlier in the week.

Rhiannon Barr told the Herald on Monday that she her partner Max Kumar were driving along Whakarite Rd with their 2-year-old in the backseat when a blonde woman walked onto the road and started yelling abuse and wanting to fight them on Saturday afternoon.

They claimed another woman appeared from nowhere and punched Kumar twice in the face with a chain wrapped around her wrist through the driver's side window, breaking one tooth and chipping another.

Barr said the assault was unprovoked.

A police spokeswoman confirmed a 26-year-old woman had been charged with common assault and would appear in Auckland District Court next week.

She said after making further inquiries into the incident it did not appear to have been random.

"The two parties had previously been involved in a verbal altercation on Belgium St earlier that week.

"Police want to reassure the community and continue to encourage anyone who at any point feels unsafe to contact us," the spokesperson said.

After further questioning by the Herald, Barr admitted there had been an earlier altercation at a dairy where the blonde woman had yelled at her, wanting to fight her. Barr said she had only met the woman briefly before and did not know her friend.

A Herald reader, who came forward with information about the incident, claimed the two women did not have weapons, as claimed by Barr, and that the couple had followed the blonde woman and her friend back to the blonde woman's nearby house and started shouting abuse.

But the couple strongly denied these claims and say the blonde woman walked in front of their car and had wielded a metal pipe while abusing them.

They want more charges laid against the other parties.