{"id":600065,"date":"2026-09-14T12:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600065\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T12:40:09","slug":"father-of-dunedin-party-victim-says-supermarkets-share-blame-for-drinking-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/600065\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of Dunedin party victim says supermarkets share blame for drinking culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bede Crestani, whose daughter Sophia was crushed to death at an overcrowded house party in Dunedin<\/a>, told Checkpoint that supermarket companies Woolworths and Foodstuffs had some responsibility for the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like them to get into a room, in Selwyn College, where we met the tenants the day after Sophia died with other parents and family of people who have been victims of excessive drinking, and front us and say that what they\u2019re doing is legal and all okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stopped short of saying supermarkets should not sell alcohol, but said the stores should look at their part in the issues relating to binge drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to look at the problems and have a look at some of those streets down there \u2013 and look at some of the broken glass after different events … and go \u2018what is their part of the damage that\u2019s resulting from that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Crestani said New Zealand had a youth drinking culture that encouraged people to over-consume alcohol.<\/p>\n

\"SophiaSophia Crestani was crushed to death at an overcrowded house party in Dunedin in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a drinking problem in New Zealand where it\u2019s cool to drink too much. It\u2019s not victimless, people die and it causes many other health problems as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said people needed to be responsible for their own and their friends\u2019 drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere does need to be responsibility for people who hold parties or events … and I advocated for prosecution of the tenants in Sophia\u2019s case.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Foodstuffs spokesperson told RNZ its thoughts were with the family and friends of the man who died.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also acknowledge the advocacy of families who have experienced the loss of loved ones and understand why these issues are so important to them,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a deeply sad situation, and we do not think it would be appropriate for Foodstuffs to comment on or debate the views expressed by grieving families. Alcohol harm is a complex issue involving a range of factors, individuals and organisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support efforts to promote the safe and responsible consumption of alcohol and comply with all applicable laws and regulations governing its sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University of Otago extended its thoughts to the student\u2019s wh\u0101nau and friends following the tragic loss.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman said students\u2019 safety and wellbeing remained top priorities.<\/p>\n

She said as well as proactive and regular communication with students about responsible consumption of alcohol, the university had a range of dedicated services, including clinicians with specialist drug and alcohol harm expertise.<\/p>\n

Woolworths has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bede Crestani, whose daughter Sophia was crushed to death at an overcrowded house party in Dunedin, told Checkpoint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[34353,2396,21659,6788,2209,2082,111,43,139,69,1118,4762,312,2122,7227,1337],"class_list":["post-600065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-blame","tag-culture","tag-drinking","tag-dunedin","tag-father","tag-for","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-party","tag-says","tag-share","tag-supermarkets","tag-victim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}