Violence Erupts in Division 3 Football Match at Sunnynook Park

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 has now ended with a prison sentence.

Court documents released this week detail how, in June last year, Waitematā player Kumar sparked a melee that went far beyond the usual pushing and shoving of community football.

The match had already been niggly. Albany players said later they’d been warned about Waitematā before kick-off and described them as “pretty scrappy” throughout. The referee eventually called the game off early, but the real damage had already been done.

According to the agreed summary of facts, the flashpoint came around 3.30pm. After the whistle, Kumar ran up behind an Albany player and kicked his right foot, sending him stumbling forward. Words flew. Tempers followed.

Kumar then drove both hands into the player’s chest, shoving him back with force. That push lit the fuse. A full-scale altercation broke out between the two sides.

In the chaos, another Albany player dragged Kumar to the ground. He got back up. Instead of stepping away, he went hunting for the same opponent, who was now standing to the side of the fight.

Kumar charged at him, punched him in the jaw and dropped him to the turf. As the player lay on the ground, Kumar kicked him in the face while still wearing his boots.

Witnesses had to physically pull him away.

One Albany United player, who did not want to be named, later told the Herald the victim was the “smallest player on the pitch”. He said their squad had been warned in advance about Waitematā and that the game had been fractious from the outset. The attacker, he said, disappeared almost immediately after the incident.

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

Waitematā FC moved quickly. Club president Conan McKinstry said Kumar was “immediately removed from the club” and made it clear there would be no way back.

“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 faced a charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, an offence carrying a maximum of 14 years in prison.

The Albany player left the pitch bleeding, with a broken jaw that required surgery. Court papers 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 sentence of five years.

The victim did not attend this week’s sentencing hearing. No victim impact statement was read in court. The judge was told he had no interest in meeting Kumar for a restorative justice conference, a process where offenders can 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 applied for a discharge without conviction, suggesting some progress towards rehabilitation.

Then came another eruption.

Last month, in the early hours of the morning, Kumar was in the back seat of a car leaving a Kingsland bar around 4am. According to court documents, he punched a male relative sitting beside him. The driver 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 relative demanded to know why, Kumar hit him again. The attack continued even after the man fell to the ground. Kumar ran, but police arrested him a short distance away.

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

In court, his lawyer said Kumar now feels ashamed of his “impulsive and violent behaviour” in both episodes and claimed he has no memory of why he attacked his family members. Counsel told the court Kumar is “very remorseful for the harm he’s caused” and accepted that a short prison term was inevitable, particularly because he did not have a suitable address for home detention.

The consequences stretch beyond jail time. A deportation notice has been issued. Kumar wants to challenge it, but his lawyer acknowledged that would be difficult.

Judge Retzlaff sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment. From the bench, he pressed the point that the violence on the pitch had cut to the core of what community sport is supposed to be.

“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 a Herald request to photograph Kumar in court, citing his lack of previous convictions, his relative youth, and the “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 said. But the message was blunt.

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

For grassroots football, it leaves a lingering question: how does a Saturday afternoon game at Sunnynook Park end with one player in surgery, another in a prison cell, and a career – and perhaps a life in New Zealand – hanging by a thread?