A Page man has been jailed for a "cowardly" one-punch attack that hospitalised a diner at a northside mall.
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The 17-year-old victim suffered a bruised brain and spent 10 days in hospital after he was punched during an argument in the food court of Westfield Belconnen in April last year.
His attacker, Christopher Parlov, 23, was found guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court in June of committing a negligent act that caused grievous bodily harm.
Parlov appeared before the court on Wednesday for sentence.
The court heard the theft of a phone had sparked a fight between Parlov and a friend of the victim weeks before the attack.
The dispute had again erupted at Westfield Belconnen on April 19 – about an hour before the assault – when the friend saw Parlov and challenged him to fight.
Parlov, his girlfriend and his brother then again crossed paths with the man as they walked through the food court area on level three of shopping centre.
CCTV footage showed Parlov's brother start an argument with the victim's friend, with the victim and Parlov joining the exchange.
Parlov then suddenly punches the victim in the head with his right fist, causing the teen to fall over and hit his head on the ground, knocking him unconscious.
The offender and his brother then grab vacuum cleaners to use as weapons in the resulting fight.
A Westfield guard – who broke up the brawl – asked what happened and Parlov said: "These guys jumped us two weeks ago, so we're getting them back."
At trial, Parlov conceded he had punched the victim, but claimed self-defence as he feared he or his brother would be stabbed.
But Magistrate Peter Morrison found Parlov had no reasonable grounds to punch the victim.
The court on Wednesday heard Parlov had been put on a two-month suspended jail sentence for an unrelated assault in Civic only five months before the Belconnen mall incident.
Mr Morrison cancelled the suspended sentenced and imposed the two-month jail sentence.
A pre-sentence report said Parlov had shown regret for the attack, but demonstrated little insight into his behaviour.
The author found he was a risk of reoffending.
But Mr Morrison said the fact the offender had no history of drug or alcohol abuse or mental health issues meant he had prospects of rehabilitation, as long as he addressed his anger management issues and his "dysfunctional though processes".
The magistrate sentenced Parlov to 20 months jail, which included 18 months for the mall attack.
He ordered Parlov serve four-months of the sentence behind bars, six months in weekend detention, and the remainder suspended upon entering an 18-month good behaviour order.
Mr Morrison said the attack on an unsuspecting victim had been akin to punching the teen from behind.
"It was cowardly and opportunistic," Mr Morrison said.