Football Match Violence Leads to Prison Sentence for Kumar

On a cold June afternoon at Sunnynook Park on Auckland’s North Shore, a Division 3 football match between Waitematā FC and Albany United spun violently out of control.

What should have been a routine league fixture has now ended with a prison sentence.

A match that turned into a melee

According to court documents released this week, Waitematā player Kumar triggered the ugly scenes late in the game. Around 3.30pm, after the whistle, he ran up behind an Albany United opponent and kicked the player’s right foot, sending him stumbling forward. Words were exchanged. Tempers snapped.

Kumar then drove both hands into the player’s chest, shoving him back with force. That was the spark. A full-scale brawl erupted between the two sides.

Dragged to the ground by another Albany player, Kumar got back to his feet and charged again. This time, he targeted the same opponent, who was now standing slightly away from the main scuffle. Kumar punched him in the jaw. The player dropped to the turf.

What followed horrified witnesses. Still wearing his boots, Kumar kicked the fallen player in the face. Spectators and players had to pull him away.

One Albany United player later told the Herald their squad had been warned about Waitematā before kick-off. He said the side played “pretty scrappy” throughout, in a match the referee eventually cut short before the brawl exploded.

He described the victim as the “smallest player on the pitch”. The attacker, he said, disappeared almost immediately.

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

Waitematā’s president, Conan McKinstry, moved quickly. He confirmed last year that Kumar was “immediately removed from the club” and that Waitematā had been co-operating with police.

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

From pitch to dock

The fallout went far beyond a club ban. After a 10-week police investigation, officers arrested Kumar one year ago this week.

He initially faced a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, an offence carrying a maximum of 14 years in prison. The victim left the ground bleeding, needed surgery for a broken jaw and had to take time off work, according to court papers.

Kumar eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of injuring with intent to injure, which carries a maximum five-year sentence.

The victim stayed away from this week’s sentencing hearing. No victim impact statement was read to the court. The judge was told he had no interest in meeting Kumar in a restorative justice conference, the kind of facilitated session where an offender can apologise face to face.

Judge Retzlaff noted that Kumar had started down a rehabilitation path. He had enrolled in a stopping-violence programme and applied for a discharge without conviction. For a time, it looked like he might claw his way back.

Then came another explosion.

A second violent outburst

Last month, Kumar’s progress collapsed in the back seat of a car.

Around 4am, after leaving a Kingsland bar, he was being driven home with two relatives. Court documents say he punched a male relative sitting beside him. The car pulled over. Kumar then turned on a female relative, punching her twice in the face and dragging her out of the vehicle by her hair.

When the male victim demanded to know why, Kumar hit him again. The man fell to the ground. The punches kept coming.

Kumar fled but was arrested 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 told the court Kumar is now ashamed of his “impulsive and violent behaviour” in both incidents and said his client has no memory of why he attacked his family members.

“He’s very remorseful for the harm he’s caused,” defence counsel Osborne said, while accepting that a short term of imprisonment was inevitable because Kumar had no suitable address for home detention.

Osborne warned that the consequences would be severe. Kumar has already been served with a deportation notice. He wants to challenge it, the court heard, but mounting a defence will be difficult.

Judge’s warning and a stark future

Judge Retzlaff sentenced Kumar to 18 months in prison.

He urged the young man to restart his rehabilitation once released, even if deportation tears him away from his family support in New Zealand.

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

The judge refused the Herald’s request to photograph Kumar in court, citing his lack of prior convictions, his relative youth and what he called “past experiences of trauma and violence” 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 blunt warning that now hangs over Kumar’s football days, and his life beyond the touchline.

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