Saige Maraia Tiopira bashed a woman sitting waiting for her bus at the Hamilton Central Bus Depot in March this year, leaving her with serious injuries. Photo / Belinda Feek

A woman walked up to a stranger waiting for a bus and unleashed a barrage of punches that left the victim with significant injuries.

The victim of Saige Maraia Tiopira’s attack has also been forced to quit her job, and no longer feels safe in New Zealand, after being intown visiting her mother.

It was one of two assaults Tiopira was sentenced for in the Hamilton District Court recently, after also punching a supermarket worker as she fled with a bottle of chocolate milk.

The 25-year-old’s counsel, Afitu Veatupu, unsuccessfully tried to keep her out of jail, with Judge Philip Crayton concerned about not only the seriousness of the assaults, but the fact she’d not long been released from jail before the first of the two attacks.

The bus station attack happened at the Hamilton Central Bus Depot about 5.20pm on March 10 this year.

The victim was waiting for a bus when Tiopira walked up to her and kicked her without warning, before throwing a “flurry of punches” to her head, causing her to fall to the ground.

Tiopira bent over and grabbed the victim by her hair with a closed fist, before punching her in the head with her other fist as the victim lay on the ground.

The other assault happened at Mill St Pak’nSave on November 23, when Tiopira and her co-offender were in the store.

That included ongoing dizziness, nausea, not being able to work or return home, and losing her job.

“The emotional effect is she now is not feeling safe in New Zealand the way she once did.”

‘People should feel safe in a public space’

Of the supermarket offence, the judge said: “If you attack someone who is merely doing their job, trying to stop you from doing crime, then plainly there is a need to deter you and protect them.”

He said Tiopira had a “very poor” criminal history, with convictions in February last year of assaulting a child and injuring with intent to injure, for which she was jailed for 13 months.

She also had dishonesty and assault convictions stretching back to 2019.

Judge Crayton took an overall starting point of 21 months before allowing credits of 25%, allowing for her plea, background, and remorse.

He got down to 15 months’ and three weeks’ jail before then considering home detention.

Tiopira had a property available, but the judge said he was “confronted by the fact that this was an unprovoked and significantly violent attack in a public place where everyone should feel safe, at the bus depot”.

He also noted that she wouldn’t have been out of jail long after her most recent stint, before carrying out this attack.

“In the circumstances I am not satisfied that commuting to home detention would ... deter you from further offending .. .and protect the community.”