Sex-change officer recovering after being hurt at checkpoint

A police officer known as the first in New Zealand to change gender is recuperating after being dragged down the road by a stolen police car.

Senior Constable Sarah Lurajud - who was known as Stephen Lurajud before undergoing sex change surgery in 2005 - suffered a cut head and injuries to her leg and ankle when dragged about 10m at an alcohol checkpoint in Christchurch on Saturday night.

Canterbury road policing chief Inspector Al Stewart said a motorist had been processed and, because of his breath-alcohol level, his licence had been suspended and car keys taken.

The man was given a court summons and sent on his way, but a short time later returned. He got into the unmarked police car and tried to drive it away. Ms Lurajud reached inside to try to stop him.

The car was abandoned a short distance away, and police arrested the man the next morning, Mr Stewart said.

Ms Lurajud was treated in hospital and is expected to be off work for about a week.

She lived as a man for 45 years, and for 20 years as a married man. However, she said she always felt she was a woman trapped in a man's body.

In her story told in a Human Rights Commission report, she said she knew she was different from a very early age.

"In the generation I grew up in, I saw no future unless I made the best of being a man. I made a decision that I was going to hide.

"Everything I did, including joining the police, was about hiding. It was all-consuming. I presented myself in the most masculine way I could," she said.

It got to a point where she felt she was dying inside and opened up about it before getting the surgery.

Ms Lurajud said police colleagues had been great about it.

"It has allowed me to be normal. I am able to just be myself."

Craig Prior, of the Police Association, said it was not an issue for police officers Ms Lurajud worked with.

"Part of being a cop is being open-minded in whatever it is you deal with," he said.

Practices around the security of patrol cars at alcohol checkpoints are to be reviewed.

Christchurch labourer Jamie Alan Sinclair, 22, is charged with injuring Ms Lurajud while intending to steal the car, as well as with taking the car, and driving with a suspended licence.

He was due to appear in the Christchurch District Court yesterday, but was granted a remand on bail without appearing before a judge. He is to appear in court on January 25.