Auckland suffers violent week-end

Press, 30 April 1984, Page 8

Auckland suffers violent week-end

PA Auckland A policeman was bashed with his own handcuffs and a taxi-driver attacked with a pair of scissors during a spate of violent crime in South Auckland at the weekend. At Otahuhu, two boys, aged 14, were robbed at knifepoint of a packet of chips as they left a takeaway bar and a Papakura man had his jaw broken when attacked in his house. A Papakura detective said that the police had been kept “flat out.” The attack on the policeman, Constable Michael Morgan, happened on Saturday after a police patrol stopped a suspected stolen car in Papatoetoe. Two

young men in the car ran off, chased by Constable Morgan and another policeman. When caught, one of the men grabbed Constable Morgan’s raincoat and pulled it over his head, snatched his handcuffs and struck him on the head, causing a deep gash. Constable Morgan was treated at Middlemore Hospital and discharged. The attacker escaped by hitching a ride with a passing motor-cyclist, who returned the handcuffs to the police yesterday morning. On Friday a taxi-driver was cut on the face by a scissor-wielding man who was later arrested and charged with aggravated assault.