An Auckland woman who says she was strangled by her partner is accusing police of failing to take her case seriously.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The woman, who RNZ has chosen not to name, has laid a complaint over officers' response to multiple reports of her ex-partner breaching a police safety order and bail.
The woman said the man was told not to have any direct or indirect contact with her while on bail, but he kept sending other people to her house.
She said it took a formal complaint before police acted.
Her ex-partner is to go on trial next year for three charges of assault.
In June this year, Sally* said an argument in her home with her ex-partner over a trivial matter escalated into her being thrown to the ground and put into a chokehold.
"It was very scary, I really thought I was going to die. I was frightened for my life. I had no way of escaping," she said.
"He'd wrapped his legs around my legs, so I couldn't move any of my lower body. One of my arms was pinned on the floor, the other one was pinned by him behind my back.
"Couldn't breathe, couldn't move ... and my head filled with pressure from blood restriction. I had a lot of pressure from behind my eyes. I actually thought that they might pop out."
She said as soon as he released her, she called police.
When police asked her if she wanted to lay charges, she was hyperventilating and too terrified to think straight, and said she would the next day.
"They didn't direct me to get medical attention, they didn't make that call on my behalf. I wish they had've."
A police safety order, which is a temporary protection order lasting up to five days, was put in place.
She said that order was breached the next morning, when her-ex partner left her a three-page letter, which she reported to police.
"And even though it wasn't threatening further violence, it felt threatening to me because he had disregarded the police safety order."
Two officers turned up to her house the following night, she said.
"I assumed they were there to take a statement to press charges. So I said: 'Are you here to take my written statement?' And they said: 'Oh we have no idea why we're here, we just got dispatched here'. So I had to tell them why there were there."
The next morning, police arrested the man.
Sally said he was let out on bail, with strict conditions not to make any kind of direct or indirect contact with her.
He breached those conditions five times, she said.
"So each time he sent somebody around to the property, I called police to report it. And again, nothing seemed to be happening because he was still sending people to the property."
Fearing for her safety, she spoke with a sergeant who dismissed the effectiveness of protection orders.
"He did say: 'look PSOs (police safety orders) and protection orders don't actually stop the person from harming you. You know, they're a piece of paper'. As a recent victim of a pretty violent, heinous act, I didn't appreciate hearing that."
Frustrated, Sally laid a formal complaint against police.
"After I laid my complaint, [her ex-partner] sent someone else to the property and only then did police tell me that they had deemed that to be a breach and that they had given him a verbal warning. And that the next time he was to send someone to the house, he would be arrested for bail breach.
"So my question around that was... is... why does that situation differ from the other times he has sent people to the house?"
She said police told her that there was "just a lot going on at the time".
Two months after laying her complaint, she got what she described as a "watery" two-paragraph-long response that failed to answer any of her questions.
Last Friday, Sally told RNZ, police phoned her that morning to say they would review her complaint.
Police would not confirm the complaint when contacted by RNZ.
Later that day, Sally received an email from the district police about her making contact with the media.
"... As you have discussed this matter with a third party and this matter is before the Courts, I will cease all communication with you until this matter has been finalised in Court," the email read.
She said the response was ridiculous, she would demand an apology from police and would continue to seek a review of her complaint.
*Sally is not her real name.
