Humane Society award for brave policeman

A policeman who risked his life saving a woman at the Whangarei Falls has been awarded a Royal Humane Society certificate of merit.

When Constable Greg Betham was presented with the award by Whangarei Mayor Stan Semenoff  last week, he made sure everyone knew Jonathan Kerr, 18, and his 12-year-old sister April had a major role in the rescue.

At the ceremony in the Whangarei District Council chambers where Mr Betham received his award, council secretary Michael Ronan read a Royal Humane Society citation saying police had been told a woman was lying motionless beyond the safety fence near the edge of the waterfall about 4pm on November 20 last year.

“When Constable Betham arrived and began talking to her she started crawling toward the cliff face,” the citation said.

“He climbed the rail and tried to restrain her. There was a struggle and they both ended up in very loose soil on the edge of the drop.”

Mr Betham got hold of a tree, pulling the woman back and preventing  them from falling down the 25m cliff.
When Jonathan and April Kerr, of Kensington, first saw the woman, Jonathan told the Northern Advocate he had thought she was dead and immediately called police on his cellphone.

By Mike Barrington

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