Bravery awards for dog handlers

Early on 9 June 2013, Senior Constable Tony Milner and Constable Andrew ‘Junior’ Douglas, with police dog Ike, were searching for 22-year-old Ryan Kellahan after he fell 120 metres down a cliff near Makara Beach, suffering severe injuries.

Knowing a Search and Rescue (SAR) team was at least an hour away, Tony and Junior searched along the shoreline, calling out and using the dog to search as far up the cliff as it could climb.

After around two kilometres they heard a faint voice from up on the cliff face - but in the dark, wind and rain they could not pinpoint its position. They followed the dog up the cliff and found Mr Kellahan on a ledge 60 metres up, conscious but with head injuries and incoherent.

Junior volunteered to climb the 120 metres to the top of the cliff, hoping to guide the SAR team to the right place. Tony and Ike remained perched with the victim on the ledge.

At the top of the cliff Junior was able to tell the SAR team where Mr Kellahan was; he then climbed down the cliff and back up to the ledge, where Tony was sheltering the injured man, who had gone into shock.

When the SAR team arrived the officers helped a paramedic get Mr Kellahan on to a stretcher. Tony and the paramedic manoeuvred the stretcher up the cliff, aided by firefighters at the top, as Junior climbed down the cliff with the dog.

Mr Kellahan was checked by medical staff, treated and kept in a hut until daylight, when he was evacuated by helicopter to hospital.

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown presented the medals at a ceremony at St James Theatre.

The Royal Humane Society bronze medal sits higher than Police’s gold merit award.