My horrible experience happened on 20th Feb 2007 at the Naeba Ski Resort in Japan. It all started because a kid fell down on a small path between the two ski slopes. This Australian mohawk shouted "Get out of the way!" who later on verbally abuse my family and attacked me turned out to be a ski instructor who was on a job.
This Hong Kong architect and his family employed their ski instructor through the internet. The company, Canyons xxx xxx, and the guy, Damian xxx xxx, were actually found on one of the Japanese ski websites... how convenient.
After a few morning runs, my family started to ski pass the Hotel's Tower 6 to take the No. 4 chair lift over to the Dragondora gondola. The got off area at No. 4 chair lift was small, and we decided to split into smaller groups with our 2 ski instructors in front to lead the way. My wife and her sister with a few kids went first and I stayed behind to wait for my brother and his snow boarding group. when my brother arrived at the got off area, I showed him the way to the gondola and took off for my wife and kids.
It was at around 11:00am when I saw and heard a man with a mohawk screaming at my wife, her sister and the kids. They were all in a very narrow path between the slopes, and I heard the man with the mohawk swearing from a few meters away. I stopped and asked what was going on. The very first sentence this mohawk replied was "None of your fucking business." I then, said “They are my wife and children and I just want to know what's going on. Why are you swearing at them?” At that point, my wife said "Its ok, let's go." then they skiied down with the kids as the guy was becoming verbally abusive, and they were all very frightened. Shortly after they left, and it was may be a few seconds after, the mohawk then said to me “You want to fuck with me?” He then pushed me on to the side of the path, took off his skis and came at me. It was all very sudden, and I was totally unprepared. I was laying on the side of the slope with my skis, goggles, and poles. He pushed me down to the slope with his left hand on my chest, and punched my face. I was totally unprepared with my skis and poles stuck on my hands and feet. All I could do was trying to block and shift from being punched. After 4 to 5 punches, he then stopped, stood up, put back on his skis and skied away as if nothing happened. I then shouted to him: “ what is wrong with you? are you barbarian?” He then stopped and looked back to me and said: “do you what to start again?”; I said: “you are ridiculous.” After that he skied down and went away.
As I was trying to get up, my older brother arrived and asked what happened. I told him: "The guy just hit me, but I am ok. It was just a few punches, I think I'm ok.” He then looked at my face and said: “No, it looks is very serious and it's all swollen up.” He then said: “We have to call the police, what does he look like?” I told my brother that he is a mohawk, had an Australian accent and was in a black ski suit. He then left his daughter and ex-wife and skied down the slope to find the guy. I followed my brother to find the guy after I picked up my goggles and beanie.
My brother snowboarded down very fast, and I could only follow him in a distance by recognizing his skiwear. I couldn't see very well as I had blood from my right eyelid, my left forehead was all swollen like an orange, and my left eye corner was also swollen up. When my brother got down to the Dragondora gondola, the mohawk was trying to leave with his customers. My brother was able to hold on to him, but the mohawk’s friend grabbed my brother, and bear hugged him from behind. The Mohawk was facing my brother and was about to punch or push my brother, I cannot really tell. I am a medium skier skiing very fast trying to follow my brother. I lost control with limited vision and crashed on to the mohawk by accident just before he did something bad to my brother. The mohawk and I tumbled on the ground for a few seconds, and when we were stabled and the tumbling stopped, the Mohawk guy was on top of me and I was again pinned on the ground. He suddenly walked away as if he were all sobered up and was trying to escape. I followed him and stopped him from going anywhere. I told him I am calling the police and warned him that he better stayed there to wait until the police come.
There were many people there and I don’t know who called the ski patrol and the police, but when the patrol came and asking what happened, the mohawk managed to escape while I was talking to the ski patrol. We waited for around 10 minutes before the police arrived and waited another 20 minutes or more for the mohawk to come back.
The mohawk disappeared from the crash scene for more then 30 minutes before his friend told us where he was. His friend who bear hugged my brother from his back before I crashed, called the mohawk and talked on his mobile phone for 3 or 4 times after he disappeared. After the 3rd or 4th call, his friend finally told us that mohawk is waiting at the patrol station. So my brother and I went down to the patrol station followed by the police.
When I got to the patrol station, the mohawk was there sitting in the corner. As we walked in, he walked out the patrol station and talked to someone outside. I was all hold up talking to the police and explaining what happened, and I didn’t have a chance to look at who the mohawk was talking to during that time, and the last time I saw the mohawk was in the patrol station before he walked out.
My injuries were mostly on my face with a deep cut on my left knee and legs. My face was very swollen with some small cuts and scrapes from the punches.
I have made one police statement on the 20 Feb 2007, and another police investigator’s statement on 21 Feb 2007. They are both very similar, but I cannot sign them as I only understood the meaning of the statement from the interpreter, but not the wordings of the statement. I told the police that I cannot sign until my lawyer or the Chinese Embassy says ok to the statements. The police understood and accepted my difficulties, and they said they would proceed with the necessary procedures and get all necessary statements before sending them over to the prosecutor.
