Surgery for mother bashed as baby slept

Memree Waird with her son Deosi. Photo / Jason Dorday

A mother has told how she was woken by an intruder straddling her and repeatedly punching her in the face while her 17-month old baby slept beside her.

Student chef Memree Waird, 30, was attacked in the early hours of July 24.

Her husband, Charian, had just left their unit in Takanini, South Auckland, for an early morning trip to the gym when she was woken about 5.30am.

"The only thing I remember was someone being on top of me going hard out bashing my face."

She was sleeping on a mattress on the living room floor with her son Deosi in a bed beside her. Memree still has a bloodshot eye and bruising around the left side of her face.

On Monday she had a three-hour operation at Middlemore Hospital to repair fractures in her cheekbone and jaw.

"It feels like my face is disfigured. It's like living with a partial life sentence and it only took him three minutes to achieve it."

Memree said she was still traumatised. "Just hearing things in the night and jumping up when someone opens the door. I don't like doors closed between me and my husband."

She remembers little about the attack, and doesn't even know if she cried out during the brutal assault.

While she didn't hear her attacker leave, her 10-year-old son Charian jnr thinks he left through the front door.

The next thing she remembered was splashing water on her face in the bathroom mirror with her three children crying beside her.

Her husband was alerted when Charian jnr called him at the gym to tell him there was "blood everywhere" and his mother's face was swollen.

"I just couldn't believe what I saw," Charian said.

Afraid but angry, Charian ran round the neighbourhood trying to find his wife's attacker.

The couple believe the intruder entered through an unlocked ranchslider and landed on Memree after tripping over a coffee table.

Detective Sergeant Dave French said police were testing blood found on the wall of the living room, Memree's clothes and bed linen.

Police are also asking for information on her missing wallet. The mock Louis Vuitton wallet could have been stolen during the burglary and contained a Westpac card, driving licence, community services card and FlyBuys card.