Blumsky's mystery attacker a teen dope-smoker

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Mark Blumsky says he has met the "lovely young man" who punched him in the face, blackening his eye and denting his campaign as a National candidate for Wellington Central in 2005.

Mr Blumsky suffered a black eye, facial cuts, a broken tooth and was left with a four-hour memory gap in June 2005 in a mysterious incident he has now fully explained.

A doorman found Mr Blumsky slumped in the stairwell outside his Cuba Mall apartment and a police investigation failed to determine what had happened.

Mr Blumsky said a woman later called him and revealed her boyfriend was the assailant.

They arranged to meet, and the young man, who was 17 at the time, said Mr Blumsky had caught him smoking cannabis in the stairwell and had confiscated it.

The young man punched Mr Blumsky, sending him hurtling down the stairs.

"Story is: I tried to take his joint off him."

Mr Blumsky said the youth was "a lovely young man" and very apologetic.

The youth had told Mr Blumsky that he was too young to be in the bar, and that was why he had run off.

The incident, and the mystery and insinuations surrounding it, were blamed for denting Mr Blumsky's chances in the race for the Wellington Central seat.

He was comfortably beaten by Labour's Marian Hobbs, who won with a 6180-vote majority.

- © Fairfax NZ News