Complaint laid over police response
A MOSSBURN woman has complained to the police watchdog over what she claims was an inadequate response by officers after she was allegedly assaulted in a Dunedin nightclub bathroom in February.
Naidene Brown had come to Dunedin on February 17 with her partner to catch up with an old friend and enjoy a night out.
On that Saturday evening the 26yearold chef visited Princes St nightclub Brimstone. She said that while waiting in the upstairs bathroom outside the stalls just before midnight, a Caucasian woman in her early 20s of mediumbuild pushed past her.
Ms Brown said ‘‘Excuse me’’ to the woman, who then allegedly shoved her to the ground and began stomping on her.
Another person, a Maori woman Ms Brown described as ‘‘very thin’’, is then alleged to have joined the assault.
Ms Brown said the assault lasted several minutes, before a bartender entered the bathroom and broke it up.
She said she could not stand up, had a large cut on her left leg which was inflicted by an assailant’s stiletto shoe, and her left ankle had swelled significantly.
An ambulance and police were called to the nightclub. Ms Brown said police interviewed several people, including her friend and her partner.
However, she alleged Dunedin police did not ask her what happened, and failed to follow up on her case later, as they had promised.
‘‘The police officer didn’t even ask me what happened; he just took my name.’’
‘‘[He] said he’d be in contact with me later that week but I never heard from him again.’’
Ms Brown spent the following three days in Dunedin Hospital after scans revealed her leg was fractured in two places, among other injuries.
Once she had returned to her home in Mossburn, she alleged police told her ‘‘there was nothing about [her case] on the computer’’. She said a police officer from Lumsden got in touch with her.
‘‘[The Lumsden police officer] rung the day after seeing me and told me that they probably won’t find who did it.’’
Doctors told Ms Brown she would be able to return to parttime work after three months, with a full recovery taking at least six months. She had suspended her parttime studies.
She complained to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) based on what she alleged was an inadequate police response to the case.
‘‘It didn’t seem like it mattered.’’
The IPCA said it was making inquiries with police regarding the alleged assault before they made a decision on whether to take Ms Brown’s complaint further.
Ms Brown said she was also disappointed police had not given her information about Victim Support.
Responding to questions from the Otago Daily Times about the police response to the incident, a police spokesman said the two officers who attended ‘‘spoke to the woman’s friends and potential witnesses at the bar and there was no evidence the woman had been assaulted’’.
He suggested Ms Brown file another complaint at a police station if she had further information.
Brimstone nightclub has since closed. Former Brimstone owner Ian Lindsay said staff called an ambulance after the alleged assault. His understanding was two women had attacked Ms Brown, but said ‘‘staff did not see anything’’. The women were allowed to leave the club before police arrived, he said.
‘‘The two females were outside after but security couldn’t hold them against their will.’’
Dunedin woman Sam Wekking, the friend Ms Brown was with in Brimstone that evening, said she told police she did not see the alleged assault because it happened in a bathroom. But she had no reason to doubt her friend’s story, she said, citing the extensive injuries including the large cut on her leg, allegedly from an offender’s stiletto shoe.
‘‘How else could it have happened?’’