Academic says her car was sabotaged

An academic who has warned about China’s political interference in New Zealand says her car has been sabotaged, and police are investigating.

Canterbury University professor Anne-Marie Brady said her garage was broken into and the air was let out of two of the tyres on her car to a ‘‘dangerous level’’ which would cause the car to go out of control when braking. Brady said the car was mostly used by her husband to drive her children around, and whoever was responsible doesn’t ‘‘care for human life’’.

The apparent sabotage was discovered after Brady’s husband dropped the car off to their longterm mechanic for a warrant of fitness. ‘‘I got into my office, the phone rang [and] it was the mechanic, very alarmed. He said: your car tyres have been interfered with. And he said there was no other explanation but that it was sabotage.

‘‘He said that two of them had been tampered with ... I just got off the phone and called the police and they went over to see him.’’

Brady said police visited the mechanic on Thursday and took photos of the car.

‘‘What I understand is that normally you’ve got your levels of PSI around the tyres and so two of them on one side had the PSI taken down to a really dangerous level.

‘‘My husband regularly does check the tyres, so someone has presumably just got into our garage and let the air out of the tyres.

‘‘That’s what I understand from what the mechanic told me.’’

Neither she nor her husband had noticed anything different about the car before it was taken to the mechanic, she said.

‘‘In that week, the car had been used once a day ... and no-one had noticed anything. It’s only if you braked suddenly you would have noticed and the car would have lost control. I’m most worried for the safety of my family. Because this would have affected them – I walk to work or cycle, I don’t use the car very much.

‘‘Whoever has done this, they don’t care for human life and they seem to think there’s no consequence for doing things like this in New Zealand.’’

A police spokesperson said: ‘‘The investigation is ongoing and we are looking at all lines of inquiry.

‘‘We can confirm that concerns have been raised in regard to the victim’s vehicle and we are investigating these.’’

Brady made waves in 2017 with the release of her research paper Magic Weapons, detailing how New Zealand was becoming ‘‘saturated with ... political influence activities’’.

The Canterbury academic’s home was broken into in February and three laptops, including one on which she wrote the paper, two cellphones and an encrypted memory stick from her last trip to China were taken. Her office was broken into as well.

She also received a letter warning her of ‘‘what was going on’’ and threatening that she would be attacked. Brady believed her family should be getting protection from the police and the Security Intelligence Service. ‘‘We did actually ask for extra protection about four months ago. I’m waiting.’’

The events were ‘‘a lot to process for us in New Zealand’’, she said.

‘‘We feel remote from these kind of situations. It’s an escalation on things that have been happening to me. I’m just doing my job. I keep doing my academic job, that’s all I’ve ever been doing.’’ Brady said she felt there was a connection between all of the events.

‘‘We did actually ask for extra protection about four months ago.’’ Canterbury University professor Anne-Marie Brady