A former Dunedin student who left three people permanently scarred following a bloody bar fight has had his sentence reduced.
However, Sammy Ayoun Soud (22) did not have it converted to home detention as he wanted.
He was originally sentenced to two and a-half years’ imprisonment before the Dunedin District Court just before Christmas.
Marie Dyhrberg QC argued on his behalf at the Court of Appeal that the sentence was manifestly unjust — and the court agreed.
But her submission the penalty should become home detention was rejected; a jail term of two years one month standing in its place.
Ayoun Soud, who pleaded guilty to charges of wounding with intent to injure and wounding with reckless disregard, joined 250 other students attending a gig at the venue Fifty Gorillas, a bar on Princes St, on August 2, 2018.
The fracas began when the defendant had a pushing match with another patron.
The first victim approached Ayoun Soud and asked if he was "all good". Despite the innocuous approach, the defendant raised his glass and slammed it into the left side of the man’s face.
The remaining shards, he threw at the victim’s friends standing nearby.
It hit a second man in the face and a parts struck a woman in the chin.
"The three victims were left shocked and shaken. All required medical treatment and all have been left with permanent scarring on their face," Justice Christine French said in her judgement released yesterday.
Ms Dyhrberg suggested her client had not been fairly rewarded for his efforts made towards rehabilitation or his age at the time of the incident.
Youth, she said, was particularly relevant "not only to mark neurological immaturity causing impulsive behaviour, but also because the offending arose from social pressure and a culture of pathological drinking at university to which Mr Soud had not previously been exposed".
The court was not convinced.
"He was in his third year of studies which tends to undermine the claim that he was led into a new culture of drinking," Justice French said.
There was also scepticism about Ayoun Soud’s level of remorse. He pleaded guilty after the trial started and at a restorative justice conference before sentencing took 20 minutes before saying the word "sorry" to one victim, and then only after being prompted.
The Crown stressed the defendant had breached bail more than once. One transgression involved him travelling to a party in Queenstown while on curfew and then lying about it to police, falsely saying he had been with his parents.
Ayoun Soud will have his first parole hearing in August.
