Ghulam Haidari pleads guilty to recklessly causing serious injury

A carpark brawl after a social game of indoor soccer left a man with a fractured eye socket and a plate in his skull, a court has heard.

Ghulam Haidari leaves Geelong Magistrates Court on Friday. Haidari pleaded guilty to recklessly causing serious injury.

An indoor soccer game turned sour when two participants turned each other in a Belmont carpark after the match, with one man “viciously” attacking another, a court has heard.

Ghulam Haidari, 31, fronted Geelong Magistrates’ Court on Friday and pleaded guilty to a charge of recklessly causing serious injury following the altercation on April 30 last year.

Magistrate Ann McGarvie convicted Haidari and placed him on an 18-month community corrections order that included 180 hours of community work.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Alex Turner told the court Haidari and his victim had been playing indoor soccer at Barwon Valley Activity Centre.

Following the game, Haidari asked to talk to the victim outside.

The two exchanged words, before Haidari struck the man and a scuffle broke out, with both men exchanging blows.

During the altercation, which was captured on CCTV, the victim ended up on the ground, where Haidari continued to hit him and prevented him from getting up three times.

The victim was taken to hospital, having suffered bruising, abrasions, swelling and a fractured eye socket which he said required surgery, the court heard.

When interviewed on May 12, Haidari told police he had known the victim since 2012.

He said the victim had grabbed him by the neck after he made a joke about the victim “running like a horse” during the game.

He said following the incident he called friends of the victim to ask if he was okay.

In a victim impact statement read by Constable Turner, the victim described feeling stressed, anxious and “in constant fear” since the incident.

He said he had no idea what he had done to deserve being attacked “so brutally and viciously”.

He said the attack resulted in lingering double vision and vision loss in one eye, which had impacted his work as a tailor.

He feared financial ruin if he was unable to keep his business.

“I can only hope (Haidari) understands the disastrous impact this has had on my life,” the victim wrote.

Mr Haidari’s lawyer, Sousan Gholami, told the court her client was under a period of immense stress when the incident occurred, as his wife was in hospital amid “severe” pregnancy complications.

Ms Gholami took issue with a number of elements of the victim’s statement and argued the attack was not completely unprovoked, but was incited by the victim grabbing Haidari by the throat during the game.

However, she said Haidari was extremely remorseful and had since engaged with mental health treatment.

The father of four is the sole breadwinner for his family and had no criminal record, Ms Gholami told the court.

Haidari had a traumatic childhood in Afghanistan, the court heard, including having his father killed in front of him by the Taliban when he was seven years old.

He came to Australia as an asylum seeker, spending two years in harsh immigration detention, Ms Gholami said.

Constable Turner said it didn’t matter if an incident on the pitch incited the incident, saying “provocation is no defence and it never should be” and the victim’s actions were “self-defence every day of the week”.

“It’s a carpark brawl over something that happened on a football field,” Constable Turner said, describing the attack as “horrendous”.

Originally published as Ghulam Haidari pleads guilty to recklessly causing serious injury