By TONY WALL
Police are backtracking on their claims that two constables were not present when New Lynn murder victim Jian Huang was stabbed, with two officers suggesting yesterday that the pair did see the attack.
The revelation contradicts what police had maintained for two days - that the officers arrived after the attack - but confirms the Herald's original report.
Mrs Huang, aged 34, from Shanghai, was repeatedly stabbed on returning home on Saturday afternoon after fetching police to help her deal with a custody dispute.
Her estranged husband has been charged with murder.
A police source, who said he had been briefed on the case in the past two days, said the officers who had followed Mrs Huang to her home entered while the attack was still in progress.
The source, who did not want his name published, said the officers hit the offender on the arm with a baton and arrested him.
The commander of Waitakere police, Superintendent Alistair Beckett, confirmed for the first time yesterday that the officers realised Mrs Huang was under attack and rushed to her aid.
The Herald can reveal that Mrs Huang received a cellphone call from her new partner telling her not to enter the house just seconds before she walked inside.
He made the call from one of the trailing police cars, which had been held up in traffic driving the 700m from the New Lynn police station.
The partner told Mrs Huang to wait outside, but she said there was no sign of anyone in the house and she was going inside.
They had returned to the home to collect custody and protection orders.
Mr Beckett said on radio yesterday that Mrs Huang went to the police station, met two officers and "described a situation in which she wanted her 5-year-old child back."
The officers were delayed in traffic. "She actually got a break in the traffic and arrived at the safe arrival point that had been nominated before they did, a matter of seconds. They located her shortly thereafter via telecommunication ... realised she was under attack and went to her aid."
Mr Beckett denied reports that Mrs Huang had told the officers her husband might be in the house.
Police yesterday said it was common in domestic disputes to keep males apart, so the fact Mrs Huang's partner was in a squad car suggested they expected trouble.
An experienced family lawyer, Antonia Fisher, said the breach of Mrs Huang's protection order would have enabled police to put her husband in cells overnight.
"If they had implemented the letter of the law appropriately they would never have allowed the woman to go back into the home."
Police Association president Greg O'Connor said yesterday that he believed the Police Complaints Authority investigation would vindicate the constables' actions.
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