A former rugby union player who punched a stranger unconscious and bloody in an act of "raw emotion" has avoided time behind bars.
Elimi Talaimaicake Uluikadavu, 23, was on Friday sentenced to 13 months in prison for inflicting grievous bodily harm, to be served by way of an intensive correction order in the community.
As part of the order, he'll have to complete 100 hours of community service within 12 months.
At Uluikadavu's sentence hearing in July, the ACT Supreme Court heard the apprentice plumber, who came to Australia to play for the Melbourne Rebels, accused a stranger of touching his partner at Shorty's bar in Canberra city about 1am on February 17 last year.
The stranger denied he did as much and Uluikadavu hit him in the face twice.
The court heard a security guard escorted Uluikadavu out of Shorty's, but he later returned to stand outside the bar and punched the stranger in the face again; this time, leaving the victim unconscious and bleeding on tiles.
Chief Justice Helen Murrell said the second incident happened after the victim approached Uluikadavu, extended his hand and said, "Hey, look, I don't want to fight", or words to that effect.
"Regrettably, the court frequently sees offences of this type," Chief Justice Murrell said at the sentence hearing.
"[Uluikadavu] has a history of binge drinking ... he remembers feeling angry and fearful but does not remember assaulting the complainant."
When Uluikadavu took the witness stand at his sentence hearing, he told the court he was normally "quite bubbly" and liked to joke around and make people laugh.
He said the act of violence, which he did out of "raw emotion", was completely out of character for him. Chief Justice Murrell agreed with that assessment.
