Violent Brawl in Auckland Football Match Leads to Prison Sentence

On a winter afternoon at Sunnynook Park last June, a Division 3 match on Auckland’s North Shore turned from scrappy to sickening in a matter of seconds.

Waitematā FC were facing Albany United when, just after the whistle at about 3.30pm, Waitematā player Kumar sparked the brawl that would eventually land him in prison.

According to an agreed summary of facts released to the Herald, Kumar ran up behind an Albany player and kicked his right foot, sending him stumbling forward. Words flew. Tempers snapped.

Kumar then drove both hands into the player’s chest, shoving him back with enough force to trigger a full-scale melee between the two sides.

As players piled in, another Albany United footballer dragged Kumar to the ground. He got back up. The real damage came next.

Spotting the original victim standing off to the side of the fray, Kumar charged at him, smashed a punch into his jaw and dropped him to the turf. While the player lay on the ground, Kumar kicked him in the face with his boots still on.

Witnesses had to haul him away.

One Albany United player, who spoke to the Herald last year on condition of anonymity, said his team had been warned about Waitematā before kick-off. He described their opponents as “pretty scrappy” throughout a match that the referee eventually cut short before the brawl boiled over entirely.

The victim, he said, was the “smallest player on the pitch”.

The attacker didn’t stick around.

“The attacker,” the player recalled, “vanished before anyone realised what had happened. Doing that and then running off, it’s just a f***ing cowardly way to do it.”

Waitematā FC moved quickly. Club president Conan McKinstry said at the time that Kumar was “immediately removed from the club” and that officials were co-operating with police.

“He’s not welcome back at the club,” McKinstry said.

A 10-week police investigation followed. Kumar was arrested one year ago this week.

Prosecutors initially charged him with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, an offence carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. The Albany player left the field bleeding and later required surgery for a broken jaw. Court documents note he had to take time off work to recover.

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

The victim stayed away from court for this week’s sentencing. No victim impact statement was read. The judge was told he had no interest in meeting Kumar in a restorative justice conference, where offenders can apologise face to face.

For a while, it looked like Kumar was clawing his way back. Judge Retzlaff noted that the player had started a stopping-violence programme and applied for a discharge without conviction, and appeared to be making “steady progress towards rehabilitation”.

Then came a violent relapse.

Last month, around 4am, after leaving a Kingsland bar and getting a ride home, Kumar turned on two relatives in the back seat of the car, according to court documents.

He punched a male relative, prompting the driver to pull over. On the roadside, Kumar punched a female relative twice in the face and dragged her out of the vehicle by her hair.

When the male relative demanded to know why, Kumar answered with another punch. The man fell to the ground. The assault continued.

Kumar fled, but 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.

In court, his lawyer, Osborne, said Kumar now felt ashamed of his “impulsive and violent behaviour” in both incidents and had no memory of why he lashed out at his family members.

“He’s very remorseful for the harm he’s caused,” Osborne told the court, while accepting that a short prison sentence was inevitable because Kumar did not have a suitable address for home detention.

The fallout stretches beyond a cell door. A deportation notice has been issued, and although Kumar wants to challenge it, Osborne said that would be difficult.

Judge Retzlaff imposed a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment. He urged Kumar to restart the work on himself once released, even if that happens in another country, away from his family.

“The physical harm you caused is clear,” the judge said, adding that he had no doubt the first victim suffered psychological harm as well. “He should have been entitled to enjoy a soccer game without this happening to him.”

The Herald’s request to photograph Kumar in court was declined. The judge pointed to his lack of previous convictions, his youth, and what he called “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,” Judge Retzlaff acknowledged.

Then came the warning that will follow Kumar long after the final whistle on this case.

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