A Canberra father brutalised in a "barbaric" near nine-hour torture session says he's completely traumatised by the assault, and feels as though he's living in a nightmare.
The ACT Supreme Court was on Tuesday shown pictures of the 33-year-old's injuries, which he sustained at his cousin Mary John Ayuel's Moncrieff house on October 2 last year.
Most prominent was a clothing iron-shaped burn on his thigh.
Ayuel was sentenced to more than two years' prison in August for threatening her cousin with a knife at the Moncrieff house, as well as kicking him in the head, jumping on his head, and strangling him with an electrical cable.
But 27-year-old Clinton Saki, who prosecutor Soraya Saikal-Skea described on Tuesday as the ringleader and instigator of the attack, will be sentenced for his role on Wednesday morning.
Saki pleaded guilty to detaining the Canberra father and occasioning to him grievous bodily harm by singeing his hair with a lighter, burning him with a hot iron and beating him with electrical cables.
Ms Saikal-Skea said Saki also stripped the man naked, tied his hands behind his back, punched him, threatened to cut off his penis and "kill him in slow motion".
The 27-year-old faces up to 20 years' prison for the crime.
In a statement read aloud to the court on Tuesday, the victim said he had felt scared to live in Australia, as well as depressed, stressed, and sometimes suicidal after the incident.
"I wish I did not have to deal with the consequences of someone's actions every day," he said.
"I am empty, just a moving object, when I should be living life."
Barrister Ken Archer said Saki couldn't explain why he had such a "grotesque overreaction" to the man apparently stealing money from him on October 2, but it may have had something to do with his upbringing.
Mr Archer said Saki - recently, a music producer - was subjected to violence in his youth in Sudan, and the money was of "emotional significance" because it was bound for his family there.
"It remains [Saki's] belief that the complainant stole the money," Mr Archer said.
"It is clear that his anger got the better of him ... there was no planning involved."
Mr Archer said the sentence Justice David Mossop handed Saki would determine whether or not the 27-year-old would be deported out of Australia and back to Sudan.
He said Saki was unlikely to reoffend, but Ms Saikal-Skea said the assault was "inexplicable this time", so it was hard to say whether he'd commit a further assault.
"[Saki's] conduct was the most extreme and violent [during the attack]," the prosecutor said.
"[The use of the] iron in particular would have been excruciating."
Justice Mossop said he would hand down Saki's sentence on Wednesday morning.
A third person, Chol Bol Nyuon, was sentenced over the assault in June. He pleaded guilty to one count of common assault for punching and kicking the Canberra father.
