An Auckland woman who stepped in while a man was beating his partner on a North Shore bus in January has received a formal letter of thanks and acknowledgment from police.
Eleanor Goldsmith was on the bus, on her way home from an evening in Auckland City, when she noticed an altercation at the back of the bus.
She says the bus driver had tried to stop the man, but didn’t have any luck and other passengers who had been seated close to the altercation had moved away.
“I could hear a woman just obviously upset and I could hear sounds so I turned around and there was this guy punching her and nobody else was going to step in,” says Ms Goldsmith.
While the bus driver moved back to his seat to notify police, she stepped in.
“I told the guy to stop hitting his girlfriend and he didn’t so I told him again and I swore at him and he came down towards me and his face was all bloody because she’d hit him and he spat blood at me.
“I was kind of scared but I wanted him to stop hitting her and nobody else was going to do anything.”
As a child, Ms Goldsmith’s father was violent towards her mother. She says her motivations for stopping the man on the bus stem from that.
“I witnessed a couple of his assaults on her and I wasn’t able to stop him hurting her but this was a situation where I could stand up and say something and try and help,” she says.
“I was very scared. Thinking about it afterwards I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I hadn't said something.”
A few months on from the assault and Ms Goldsmith received a formal letter of thanks from police for her intervention that night. She shared the letter on Twitter in a bid to acknowledge their thoughtfulness.
“I was really surprised and touched to get that letter the other day. I kind of wanted to acknowledge that thoughtfulness which feels like a really Kiwi thing that the police would actually take the time to thank me.
"I don't do martial arts or anything like that. I'm no superhero or anything so it just seemed like a really nice gesture on their part."
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