An Auckland teenager is traumatised and living in fear after being brutally assaulted on a bus last month.
Not only was the young teenager assaulted, but the attack on Monday, August 21 on a bus going from Glenfield's McDonald's was also filmed and spread widely.
The girl suffered a swollen mouth and black eye from the vicious assault, but her grandmother says the psychological impacts run much deeper than any physical injuries.
Maree, who is the grandmother of the 14-year-old, who Newshub has decided not to name, said it's the third time she's been attacked by the same group in the last two months on Auckland's North Shore.
The first attack was in July when the 14-year-old was chased, threatened with a knife and forced to hide in a sleep-out.
The second attack on Friday, August 18 saw the 14-year-old locked in a bathroom and forced to fight her friend.
"They kept making her pull her hair, punch her and then the other girl started choking my granddaughter and they stopped the fight," Maree said.
"Then they let them out and they got threatened. If you tell anybody we will come after you. If you're a snitch, then you'll be beaten up worse."
Then just three days later she was attacked on the bus.
The teen is now terrified and traumatised; she didn't tell her family about any of the assaults until weeks later.
Instead, she explained her injuries by saying she fell down the stairs at school.
Her family finally found out about all the attacks, when the teen was sent footage of the bus attack which was being shared among the school community.
"The fact she knows probably most of the school and the community have watched a video of her getting beaten up and you can clearly see her face, that's the saddest thing," Maree said.
The "disturbing" and "horrible" footage, which Newshub has seen, shows a much bigger girl, believed to be 15 or 16, launching a brutal and vicious attack on the 14-year-old on a bus going from Glenfield's McDonald's.
The girl lands over a dozen savage punches to the head of the 14-year-old while also aggressively pulling her hair. The teen can be seen sitting in her seat not interacting with the girl before the attack.
A passenger tries to intervene before the bus driver stops the bus and kicks the girl and a person filming off.
The 14-year-old's family was so worried about her safety they pulled her out of school and moved her to Northland.
"I am quite worried about even sending her back to school. It's not so much her being at school, it's outside of school," Maree said.
"That's why I pulled her out of Glenfield College because I told them she is not safe the minute she stepped off the school grounds."
While the bruises and scars might've healed, the psychological impacts are still very raw.
"Physically now you look at her and she looks fine, but the fear of the emotional well-being is not good," Maree said.
"Before I found out what had happened, I had noticed her behaviour change. If we went out, she never wanted to come anywhere, she wanted to stay home. She doesn't want to go anywhere. If we do go somewhere, she's always looking around."
She told Newshub it isn't fair her granddaughter doesn't feel safe to go out and do normal teenage things.
"Your children should be able to go out, get on a bus and be safe," she said.
"It makes me angry... I don't understand what goes through their minds to think it's okay."
Waitematä East area prevention manager acting inspector Andrew Hawkins told Newshub youth services are investigating two of the assaults and have identified one suspect.
The suspect is from the August 18 attack but has not been arrested.
Hawkins urges anyone with information to come forward and speak to police.
"This type of behaviour is totally unacceptable and offenders will be held to account," he said.
"Police encourage anyone who may have been involved or witnessed either of these incidents to report the matter to police on 105. Police will continue to have a presence in the Glenfield community to ensure the public continue to feel safe."
It comes after a series of similar assaults at bus stops, busses and Glenfield McDonald's this year.
Last month, a teenager with disabilities was beaten while waiting for her school bus, and another girl in the North Shore was harassed and threatened at the bus stop.
In Rotorua, two teenagers were assaulted while waiting at a bus stop in the CBD last month.
In June, a 12-year-old was viciously attacked at Glenfield McDonald's after another girl wrongly thought the victim had earlier laughed at her. The attack was widely condemned, with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins saying it was "utterly unacceptable".
Maree told Newshub the spate of attacks on buses and at Glenfield McDoanld's shows the law isn't strong enough.
She is calling for teens to be treated like adults if they commit brutal assaults.
"If you're old enough when you're 13 or 14 to beat someone up that bad, you should be treated like an adult if you can behave like one," she said.
"The law is not fair for these kids that are getting beaten up."
She was horrified to see none of the other people on the bus stepping in to help break up the fight.
"When you watch these things, nobody helps. They all just stayed sitting in their seats on that bus and nobody got up to actually help... I guess a lot of them are scared because these are big kids," Maree said.
