This document has been released by New Zealand Police in accordance with applicable legislation
Summary regarding police file 241002/3521
Incident:
On 29 September 2024, the complainant was at Keith Hay Park, Mt Roskill,
coaching a 10th grade girls football team in a game against another football
team. The complainant and a father of a player on the other team exchanged
several comments to each other throughout the game. As expected, the
complaint and the suspect have competing versions of those exchanges.
At the conclusion of the game, the complainant walked to a nearby public
toilet, along with the mother of one of the Auckland United players. There was
a further interaction between the suspect and the complainant at that
location, as he was making his way to his parked vehicle. Again, the versions
provided by each party differs from the other. The complainant alleges that the
suspect struck her on the side of the head with an umbrella, that caused her to
spin around multiple times before falling to the ground unconscious.
The suspect states that it was the complainant who was the aggressor, and
after she again verbally abused his daughter and then advanced on him, he
used his umbrella to keep space between them – he denies striking her with
the umbrella and states that she jumped to the ground and began rolling
around as if he had struck her with the umbrella.
The suspect left the scene. An ambulance attended and transported the
complainant to hospital, from where she was discharged later that same day –
there was no visible injury, however the complainant did report common
symptoms of concussion.
Investigation:
During the course of police’s investigation, the assigned officer obtained
accounts from the complainant, witnesses to varying parts of the
interaction(s), and the suspect - once identified.
Charging decision:
In this case police carefully determined there was insufficient evidence to
initiate a prosecution against the suspect, mainly due to the differing accounts
of the incident provided by all the parties involved, including the witnesses.
The police file is now closed.
Appendix A
