A refugee who bit part of his housemate's ear off in an "unprovoked" attack has avoided jail time, having been arrested nearly seven years after the fact.
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Ali Alaragi, 41, fronted the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday, having previously pleaded guilty to one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
He was also charged with common assault after an incident on September 30, 2012. The court heard about 8pm that night at a house in Latham, an argument broke out between Alaragi and his housemate about borrowed money.
Alaragi's victim told him words to the effect of, "you work in construction and get paid good and should take your own money when you go out", the court heard.
Alaragi responded to the man, "f--- your sister", and suddenly ran at him before he bit part of the man's left ear off. Alaragi stood back from his victim and spat out his bloody flesh, before he lunged at the man with a 15-centimetre knife in the house's kitchen.
A prosecutor read aloud a victim impact statement from the attacked man in court on Tuesday.
"The incident is always in my mind. It has been for the last seven years," the man said in the statement.
"I feel ashamed of my ear ... I feel it makes me ugly."
The man said that after the incident, his romantic relationship with a woman online broke down, and he had cut off his friends who had "joked about" his permanent disfigurement.
"Since that happened, I am 100 per cent by myself ... I feel I am 50 per cent dead," he said in the statement.
"It took away my chance for a happy future. Everything just stopped."
Justice David Mossop on Tuesday said the incident was "unprovoked" and appeared to have been a "spontaneous act of aggression".
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The court heard Alaragi moved to NSW after the incident, when he was under no legal obligation to stay in the ACT. A first instance warrant was issued for his arrest in September 2013, but police didn't catch up with him until June last year, when he was back in the territory.
Justice Mossop said: "The delay was not the fault of the offender or the prosecuting authorities."
The court heard Alaragi had spent two days in custody over the attack.
Alaragi cried when Justice Mossop handed him a jail sentence of 8 months and 15 days, which was fully suspended upon him entering into a 30-month good behaviour order.
The court heard Alaragi arrived in Australia by boat before the incident and was granted a humanitarian visa.
His defence lawyer Paul Edmonds said Alaragi lived in Sydney as of Tuesday, but would move to the ACT if it meant he could avoid jail.