Heroes rescue stabbed mother
Published: December 10, 2007
Courageous neighbours are being praised for saving the life of a mother who was being stabbed repeatedly in the middle of the night.
One approached the attacker as he kicked and punched the woman, then backed off when he saw a large knife. The neighbour later tried to stem her bleeding with towels when the attacker fled.
Another neighbour in Wainuiomata chased the attacker’s van while calling police on his mobile phone. They set up road spikes at the base of Wainuiomata Hill, where the van hit a police car and the driver was arrested.
Police are hailing the Mataura Grove residents’ heroism and say the 35-year-old woman, who was stabbed in the upper body, arms, neck and head more than 10 times, would be dead if no one had intervened.
She is in a serious but stable condition in Wellington Hospital after emergency surgery.
“If the neighbours hadn’t come out and distracted him from his stabbing frenzy, I’m very confident she would have died,” Detective Sergeant Brendan Mears said. “They’ve saved her by coming out of their houses in the middle of the night.”
The attack began about 2am yesterday in the home of the victim, her four young children and her partner. Mr Mears said the man stabbed her repeatedly before a female friend came to her aid and was stabbed in the back.
The diversion allowed the victim to run screaming from the house. The man chased her down the street, attacking her again before fleeing when neighbours approached.
“We heard the screams,” one said. “My husband went out to intervene. He showed the knife, so I called the cops. [My husband] came back inside to get a towel because she was bleeding. She was very out of it because she was bleeding profusely.”
A 36-year-old man entered no plea to an assault charge in Lower Hutt District Court yesterday. He was granted interim name suppression and remanded in custody till Monday.
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