On one occasion, Kazakos attempted to follow a female staff member inside the studio.
On June 3 this year around 7.10am, the woman was inside the studio when another employee came in and said a man had followed her into the studio.
The woman went outside and asked the man what he was doing, to which he replied, “Whatever you want me to do”, the summary of facts states.
Kazakos then approached the woman aggressively, causing her to feel scared and go back into the studio, locking the door behind her.
Kazakos then began to shake the door before calling the business a total of 143 times, leaving “aggressive” voice messages of him “ranting and rambling”.
On June 11, Kazakos called the woman’s personal phone multiple times and left voice messages.
The same day, Tim Bateman, the owner of the studio, was leaving the business when he saw Kazakos. He confronted him about calling the woman and told Kazakos he was not allowed back into the studio.
Kazakos shouted at Bateman, “Do you want to go c***?”, before running into a small doorway and grabbing a long metal pole, swinging it at Bateman in a baseball bat fashion.
Kazakos put the pole down, adopting a fighting stance and lunging at Bateman several times before picking up the pole again and hitting Batemen on his left arm.
Bateman then tackled Kazakos to the ground and held him there until police arrived.
Bateman told NZME the biggest thing for him, and his team, was that Kazakos got the help and support he obviously needs.
He said they have hundreds of customers coming into the studio every week, sometimes when it’s dark outside, and it was important that they feel safe and comfortable, as well as his staff.
“It’s not nice knowing people like that are out and about just out of control.”
He said Kazakos would call up the business “ranting and rambling” in an aggressive manner, to the point where he became concerned he might hurt somebody.
Bateman said he had no animosity towards Kazakos, stating he would rather he be assaulted by the man than one of his female staff members.
He felt as though the matter had been dealt with well.
Kazakos was also charged relating to an incident on February 16 this year when he pushed and threatened a security guard who served a trespass order on him at the South City Mall.
From the dock, Kazakos asked the judge for permission to speak, stating he would never call the business 143 times or approach the females in a sexual way.
“Why would I be doing that to females when I can just pay for it?” he asked the judge.
Kazakos’ lawyer Kerri Bell said her client had mental health issues at the time of the offending but is now getting the support he needs.
She asked the judge to impose a sentence of intensive supervision and said Kazakos had told her the three and a half months he’d spent in custody had been a good opportunity for him to “get clean”, and he is in a good space now.
He was also willing to pay reparation to the victims, the court heard.
Judge Mark Callaghan said reports provided to the court showed Kazakos suffered from various mental health issues and if he didn’t continue taking his medication, he would likely re-offend.
Judge Callaghan sentenced Kazakos to 12 months’ intensive supervision with special conditions, including not to possess or consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs, not to contact the victims of his offending and to attend mental health appointments.
Emily Moorhouse is a Christchurch-based Open Justice journalist at NZME. She joined NZME in 2022. Before that, she was at the Christchurch Star.
