A Sri Lankan thug has been jailed for less than three months for smashing a glass bottle over the head of a stranger on a Brisbane train.
Saranees Sivakumar, 22, who was allowed to migrate to Australia as a child, and co-offender Baddeley Mawhinney were caught on CCTV carrying out the vicious attack on a city-bound Cleveland line train on April 25.
Mawhinney was previously sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment for his role in the attack, and Sivakumar faced Cleveland Magistrates Court via videolink from custody on Monday after pleading guilty to affray, The Courier Mail reported.
The court heard Sivakumar and Mawhinney approached the victim, who was travelling alone, and started talking to him, but the encounter soon turned violent.
The pair punched the man several times to the head and face, prevented him from getting off by dragging him through closing train doors, and then moved to another carriage.
But they soon returned and attempted to take the man’s bag before Sivakumar smashed a glass bottle over the man’s head, causing him to start bleeding.
The court heard the victim was so traumatised by the attack he has since left Queensland.
Sivakumar claimed in court he was acting in self-defence, but Magistrate Deborah Vasta rejected his submission.
You’re allowed to defend yourself when you’re required to do that,” she said.
“Hitting someone over the head with a bottle is not [self-defence] … It was a very nasty attack on an innocent man.”
But she sentenced Sivakumar to just eight months’ imprisonment over the attack, resulting in him being released on parole under supervision having already spent 89 days in custody.
Magistrate Vasta noted she was constrained by the affray charge’s maximum penalty of 12 months, and told Sivakumar if it had been higher “I think you’d be looking at more than you got”.
The court heard Sivakumar became an Australian citizen last year, and moved to Brisbane from Melbourne seeking work but had been homeless and unemployed.
Header image: Left, right, the bottle attack CCTV.
The post Sri Lankan thug jailed for just 89 days for bottle attack on Brisbane train first appeared on The Noticer.
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