Violence Erupts at Division 3 Football Match in Auckland

On a winter afternoon at Sunnynook Park on Auckland’s North Shore, a Division 3 football match between Waitematā FC and Albany United disintegrated into violence that would later be replayed not on video, but in a courtroom.

Court documents show that around 3.30pm, shortly after the whistle, Waitematā player Kumar sprinted up behind an Albany opponent and kicked the back of his right foot, sending the player stumbling forward. The two traded words. Then it escalated.

Kumar drove both hands into the player’s chest, shoving him back with enough force to spark a full-scale melee between the teams. Players piled in. Bodies tangled. The match, already scrappy by all accounts, tipped into chaos.

Dragged to the ground by another Albany United player, Kumar got back to his feet and went hunting for the original opponent, who was now standing slightly away from the main brawl. He found him. He punched him in the jaw, dropping him to the turf, then kicked him in the face while still wearing his boots.

Witnesses had to haul Kumar away, according to the agreed summary of facts. The victim lay bleeding, his jaw broken. He would need surgery and time off work to recover.

Albany players said they had been warned about Waitematā before kick-off. One, who did not want to be named, told the Herald last year the side had been “pretty scrappy” throughout a match the referee cut short before the fight exploded. He described the injured player as the “smallest player on the pitch”.

The attacker, he said, disappeared almost as soon as the damage was done.

“Doing that and then running off, it’s just a f***ing cowardly way to do it,” the player said.

Inside Waitematā FC, the fallout was immediate. Club president Conan McKinstry said Kumar was “immediately removed from the club” and made it clear the door would not reopen.

“He’s not welcome back at the club,” McKinstry said, adding that Waitematā had been co-operating with police.

A 10-week police investigation followed. Kumar was arrested one year ago this week and initially charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, an offence that carries a maximum of 14 years in prison. The charge reflected the seriousness of the injury: a broken jaw, blood on the pitch, and a player whose working life was interrupted by a Saturday afternoon game gone wrong.

Kumar later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of injuring with intent to injure, which carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment.

The victim did not attend this week’s sentencing hearing. No victim impact statement was read out. The court was told he had no interest in meeting Kumar for a restorative justice conference, where offenders sometimes apologise face to face.

For a time, it looked as if Kumar might be clawing his way back. Judge Retzlaff noted he had started a stopping-violence programme and had applied for a discharge without conviction, signs the court saw as “steady progress towards rehabilitation”.

Then came another night, another outburst.

Last month, around 4am, Kumar was getting a ride home from a Kingsland bar. In the back seat with two relatives, he snapped. Court documents say he punched a male relative sitting beside him. The car stopped. On the roadside, he turned on a female relative, punching her twice in the face and dragging her out of the vehicle by her hair.

When the male relative demanded to know why, Kumar hit him again, kept swinging even after he fell to the ground, then fled. Police arrested him a short distance away.

He initially denied attacking his relatives. When questioned about the football assault, he claimed he had acted in self-defence.

His lawyer, Osborne, told the court Kumar now felt ashamed of his “impulsive and violent behaviour” in both incidents and said his client had no memory of why he lashed out at his family. Osborne said Kumar was “very remorseful for the harm he’s caused”, but accepted that a short prison term was inevitable because Kumar did not have a suitable address for home detention.

The consequences, Osborne argued, would stretch far beyond a cell. A deportation notice had already been issued. Kumar wanted to fight it, but his lawyer admitted that would be difficult.

Judge Retzlaff settled on 18 months’ imprisonment.

“The physical harm you caused is clear,” he told Kumar, adding that he had no doubt the Albany United player also suffered psychological harm. “He should have been entitled to enjoy a soccer game without this happening to him.”

The judge urged Kumar to restart the work he had begun on himself once he is released, warning that life could become even tougher if deportation separates him from his family.

The Herald’s request to photograph Kumar in the dock was declined. Judge Retzlaff pointed to his lack of previous convictions, his youth, and what he described as “past experiences of trauma and violence that he himself experienced” at the hands of his father.

“You have not had a happy upbringing in certain seasons of your life,” the judge said.

Then came the bluntest line of the day, a warning as stark as any red card.

“You need to develop a mechanism to steer away from this violence, or it’s going to keep landing in prison.”