‘Sickening’ attack on amputee at home

Shane Andrews has no idea why he was bashed and robbed on his doorstep.

Mistaken identity? A twisted attempt to score?

The Hamilton amputee, 43, is pondering both explanations as his swollen and blackened eye, split lip, fractured rib and bruised body heal after he was attacked on his porch on Sunday afternoon.

Sitting on the deck of his Avalon Drive flat two days later, Andrews describes his assailants as ‘‘some scumbags looking for money and drugs’’.

‘‘Or they’ve just turned up thinking a bloke with one leg is a soft enough target to have a crack at.’’

Andrews lost his leg in a tractor accident at the age of 16.

He’s been in and out of work over the years. His Nawton flat has been home for the past 13.

‘‘I’ve lost a leg so I’ve been through more traumatic things than a hiding.’’

He believes the incident began on Sunday morning when a stranger came knocking on the gate of his flat.

‘‘He turned up in the morning, probably around eightish, asking for someone. I told him it was down the road, and he left.’’

But a few hours later, around 4.20pm, the same man returned. This time he brought a mate.

After hearing his rescue dog, Shadow, barking, Andrews stepped out his front door to find the pair lingering beneath the stairs.

One asked if he could get a ‘‘puff’’, to which Andrews told him to ‘‘f... off’’.

‘‘I just went into home-defence mode.

‘‘They burst through the gate, so I went for a big set of loppers sitting there, but they got tangled up and before I could grab them he was on top of me, pounding the s... out of me, held me down and beat the crap out of me.’’

While one man assaulted Andrews, the other rummaged through his home, taking his air rifle and bags of pellets from the wardrobe, a tablet, machete, pocket tobacco and his flatmate’s medication.

‘‘The whole time he was screaming a name in my face, saying, ‘Where’s this guy, where’s this guy?’’’

It’s possible it was mistaken identity, he says, but likely an opportunist crime.

‘‘Given how brazen they were, they seemed to be feeding their habit, asking me for drugs.’’

The beating lasted an estimated two minutes before neighbours heard the commotion and called police.

Andrews managed to get free, grab a nearby cat pole and fend off his assailant.

‘‘The combination of that, and the neighbour saying the cops were on their way, is what had them running on to the road.’’

Neighbours tried to chase the pair but by then they had jumped into a white Mazda parked about 200 metres up the road.

In the one minute and 30 seconds it took for police to respond, the culprits had disappeared.

‘‘If anything I’m thankful for the neighbours and the quick response of police.’’

Waikato police Senior Sergeant Simon Cherry said police were waiting on forensic results from a number of items including a fizzy drink bottle left at the scene.

‘‘This is a sickening attack on a disabled person at his home and we are appealing to witnesses in the area of Avalon Drive at that time.’’

CCTV footage was being reviewed, along with sightings of a white Mazda Familia, he said.

Both men are described as Maori or Pacific Islanders, one aged 18 to mid-20s, the other in his

30s.

One was wearing a dark or black cap, a blue jacket and shorts.

The younger one was thinner. He wore a purple baseball singlet with the number 23 on the back.

Andrews isn’t covered by insurance.

Anyone who saw anything is asked to call Hamilton police on 07

858 6200 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.