Police not charging alleged attacker

Awanui pensioner Chris Radich said last week that he did not know if he could survive the physical and emotional aftermath of an assault on him in his home last month.

Mr Radich (68) said he had returned from taking his dogs for a run on the evening of March 12, and was lying down when his door crashed open and a man known to him entered.

He tried to get up but was punched in the face, the blow knocking him backwards, the back of his head striking a wall.

The incident was the latest in a dispute that went back 18 months, he said, and had left him too frightened to continue living in his home, despite the support he was receiving from family and friends.

A medical report from Kaitaia Hospital, where he was examined next day, noted that he was suffering ongoing neurological symptoms.

Last week he was still using the painkillers and sleeping pills that had been prescribed.

He was suffering headaches and had blurred vision in his left eye, while in the hours after the attack he had been vomiting, suggesting that he had been concussed. Mr Radich, who said he had been diagnosed with leukaemia but was in remission, said the man who attacked him was enraged, and so drunk that he had trouble keeping his feet.

He refused to let him out of his home, even after neighbours tried to intervene.

The intruder was handcuffed by police and taken away, but had not been charged.

“This has devastated me,” an emotional and trembling Mr Radich said.

“I’m too frightened to go back to my own home.

“For four days

I was too