{"id":646501,"date":"2026-10-31T03:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T03:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/646501\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T03:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T03:10:11","slug":"queenstown-bar-assault-kevin-mahmoudi-azar-stomped-victim-with-ugg-boot-after-finger-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/646501\/","title":{"rendered":"Queenstown bar assault: Kevin Mahmoudi Azar stomped victim with Ugg boot after finger injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the man tried to re-enter the bar, Mahmoudi Azar pushed him, causing him to fall backwards down the stairs.<\/p>\n

A confrontation involving others followed at the bottom of the stairs. During the melee, Mahmoudi Azar, who was wearing Ugg boots, stomped on the victim\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n

Police later appealed for witnesses<\/a> to come forward.<\/p>\n

This week, Mahmoudi Azar pleaded guilty to assault with intent to injure in the Invercargill District Court.<\/p>\n

Judge Noel Walsh described the victim\u2019s impact statement, which was not read aloud in court, as a \u201charrowing sort of reading\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to the summary of facts, the victim, who had been working as a ski instructor, was kicked out of the Ballarat St<\/a> bar about 1.10am due to his behaviour.<\/p>\n

While being ejected, he was pushed down a flight of 16 stairs leading to the bar.<\/p>\n

He had left his jacket inside and tried to walk back up the stairs to get it when he bumped into Mahmoudi Azar, accidentally dislocating his finger.<\/p>\n

Mahmoudi Azar then pushed the victim, causing him to stumble and fall five steps before being caught by another man.<\/p>\n

He then walked to the bottom of the stairs and forcibly kicked the victim\u2019s foot out from under him, causing him to fall heavily to the ground.<\/p>\n

A wider confrontation followed as members of the public tried to separate those involved.<\/p>\n

The summary of facts stated that Mahmoudi Azar then intentionally kicked the victim\u2019s shoulder, using the heel of his foot in a stomping manner.<\/p>\n

The victim was on the ground, with several people restraining him , and was unable to defend himself.<\/p>\n

He suffered a laceration to his forehead following the fall down the stairs and the kick that knocked his foot out from under him.<\/p>\n

The victim was allegedly assaulted again several minutes later when he returned to the scene.<\/p>\n

He also suffered a fractured right cheekbone in four places during the night\u2019s events.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Peter Redpath said the victim, who has since returned to Australia, was \u201cout of sorts\u201d that night and that Mahmoudi Azar had been \u201cterrified about this whole experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was ordered to send a letter of apology to the victim, pay $3000 in emotional harm reparation, and pay a $500 fine plus court costs.<\/p>\n

Following sentencing, Mahmoudi Azar planned to leave the country to work in Switzerland for the ski season.<\/p>\n

A second man charged with assaulting the victim is due to appear in court next month.<\/p>\n

Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.<\/p>\n

Join the NZ Herald\u2019s Open Justice team for Case by Case<\/a>, a video and podcast series examining the disputes and decisions making headlines across New Zealand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the man tried to re-enter the bar, Mahmoudi Azar pushed him, causing him to fall backwards down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,17704,316735,17181,23835,97648,15258,61092,316734,111,139,69,20930,213,171828,316736,1337,102],"class_list":["post-646501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-assault","tag-azar","tag-bar","tag-boot","tag-finger","tag-injury","tag-kevin","tag-mahmoudi","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-queenstown","tag-sports","tag-stomped","tag-ugg","tag-victim","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646501","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=646501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}