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A man who king-hit an innocent bystander during a street brawl, was "a whisker away" from facing a manslaughter charge, a judge says.

Hamish Paul Wray (23) appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to assault with intent to injure.

He was in Queen St with friends late on April 7 when a fight broke out between his group and another.

Wray turned to a man from the opposing bunch, who was not involved in the melee, and punched him in the face.

"The victim was doing absolutely nothing," Judge Kevin Phillips said.

"Your blow was delivered with sufficient force to his face to knock him unconscious as he stood there. Because he was unconscious, that was a free fall to the road."

The victim fell face-first on to the ground.

His chin bore the brunt of the impact and he required four stitches to close up the wound.

The judge said if it had been the man's forehead, the outcome could have been much more serious.

"This young man needs to be aware he's very lucky in terms of the outcome of this case," said Crown prosecutor Robin Bates.

The judge said the act could only be described as "a king hit".

"You need to understand how fortunate you are facing the charge you're facing and not something where the High Court would be talking of a manslaughter conviction and whether you should go to prison for years," he said.

"All of us who practice in this court have seen people go to prison for an act such as this where the consequences were much more disastrous."

The defendant was "a whisker away" from that sort of outcome.

What was more concerning to the judge was that Wray was before the court for an assault in 2013, for which he was sentenced to community work.

Judge Phillips said the defendant's criminal record showed he did not learn.

At the heart of the April incident was alcohol.

"It's clear that without alcohol you could become a good member of our society," he said.

Judge Phillips said the sentence he imposed needed to have "bite".

He gave Wray 80 hours' community work along with three months' community detention at an Abbotsford address.

The defendant also received six months' supervision and was ordered to pay the victim $400.