Football Violence: Kumar's Assault at Sunnynook Park

On a winter afternoon at Sunnynook Park on Auckland’s North Shore, a routine Division 3 fixture between Waitematā FC and Albany United disintegrated into something far darker than a local football grudge.

What began as a whistle for a stoppage ended with a player in hospital, a season scarred, and, this week, a prison sentence.

From whistle to chaos

Court documents released to the Herald lay out the flashpoint. Around 3.30pm, after the referee’s whistle, Waitematā player Kumar ran up behind an Albany opponent and kicked his right foot, sending the player stumbling forward. The two exchanged words.

Then it escalated.

Kumar drove both hands into the player’s chest, shoving him back with force. That shove lit the fuse. Players converged. A full-scale melee broke out between the two sides on the North Shore pitch.

In the chaos, another Albany United player dragged Kumar to the ground. He got up, but he didn’t walk away. Instead, he charged at the original victim, who was now standing off to the side of the brawl, away from the main crush of bodies.

Kumar punched him in the jaw. The blow knocked the player to the ground. As he lay there, Kumar kicked him in the face, still wearing his boots.

Witnesses had to pull Kumar away.

The victim, described by a teammate as the “smallest player on the pitch”, was left bleeding and badly hurt. He later needed surgery for a broken jaw and time off work to recover, the court heard.

‘Cowardly’ and gone

Albany United players had been warned about Waitematā before the match, one team member told the Herald last year. He said they’d been told the opposition could be “pretty scrappy”, and that proved true throughout a match the referee eventually cut short before the brawl.

In the stunned minutes after the violence, the attacker was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

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

Waitematā FC moved quickly. Club president Conan McKinstry said Kumar was “immediately removed from the club” and that officials had been 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.

Charges cut, damage done

Police initially charged Kumar with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, an offence that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment. The seriousness of the injuries and the nature of the attack justified the charge on paper.

Kumar eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge: injuring with intent to injure, which has a maximum penalty 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 the player had no interest in meeting Kumar in a restorative justice conference, a process that often allows offenders to apologise face to face.

On the field that day, the victim had simply been another amateur footballer expecting 90 minutes of hard tackles and local rivalry. Instead, as the judge later put it, he was denied the basic right to enjoy a game without being assaulted.

A second eruption

For a time, Kumar appeared to be edging towards rehabilitation. He had started a stopping-violence programme and applied for a discharge without conviction.

Then came another outburst.

Last month, around 4am, Kumar was getting a ride home from a Kingsland bar with relatives, according to court documents. In the back seat, he punched a male relative. The car stopped. Kumar then 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 hit him again. The man fell to the ground. The attack continued.

Kumar fled but was arrested a short distance away. He initially denied attacking his relatives. When questioned about the football incident, he claimed he had acted in self-defence.

The fresh violence derailed any prospect of leniency.

Shame, deportation, and a cell

In court, Kumar’s lawyer said his client was ashamed of his “impulsive and violent behaviour” in both episodes. Kumar claimed to have no memory of why he attacked his relatives.

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

The consequences stretch beyond the prison gates. A deportation notice has been issued. Kumar wants to challenge it, but his lawyer admitted that will be difficult.

Judge Retzlaff sentenced Kumar to 18 months’ imprisonment. He acknowledged that Kumar had been making some progress before the latest incident but said the new offending “unfortunately put a halt to that positive progress”.

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

The judge declined the Herald’s request to photograph Kumar in court, citing the player’s lack of prior convictions, his youth, and what he described as “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 said.

Then came the warning that will hang over whatever future Kumar can salvage, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere.

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