Two mates who bashed and left a teen with knife wounds after after a birthday party at an Airbnb in inner Sydney spiralled out of control will be eligible for immediate release from jail after being sentenced.
Parham Pourbaghkhany wiped his eyes as he and Ho Jin Park learned their fate in Sydney’s Central Local Court on Thursday over their part in a vicious brawl.
Appearing from prison via videolink where they have spent the last 10 months following the May 2021 incident, they were told by Magistrate Daniel Reiss that they would be eligible for immediate parole.
The paid pleaded guilty to one count of reckless wounding after a verbal argument descended into violence and ended with them beating and wounding a teenage party goer.
The court heard how the men, now aged 20, turned up about 10.30pm on May 8 at a Pyrmont Airbnb where a group of teenagers were celebrating a 15th birthday.
The argument erupted after they were asked where they were from.
According to court documents, Pourbaghkhany, who was wearing one black glove, said “I’m from Africa”.
During the melee, Pourbaghkhany was punched, stabbed three times in his thigh and hit with a bottle.
The court heard on Thursday that his assailant was never identified and the engineering student spent two days in hospital under police guard.
Their 16-year-old victim tried to leave the apartment complex and while he was waiting for a lift lobbed insults at the pair saying “f***ing pussy”, prompting violence to erupt once again.
Park and Pourbaghkhany chased the teen, trapping him at the dead end of a hallway.
Pourbaghkhany threw a bottxjmtzywle at the wall above the boy’s head and the pair got into a scuffle as Park stood back and watched his friend and the boy fight each other, court documents state.
When the boy fell to the ground, Pourbaghkhany and Park stood over him and punched and kicked him.
The court heard it was unclear who used the knife to wound the boy, who was left with lacerations to his upper chest and upper arms.
Park’s lawyer John Kahn described the victim’s wounds as “superficial”.
“The objective seriousness falls towards the lower range rather than the mid range (of objective seriousness). The injury itself, the wound it was superficial,” Mr Khan told the court.
“It did not require stitches, the victim did not require hospitalisation and was released soon after.”
According to court documents Pourbaghkhany had told police he was acting in self defence after he was stabbed.
“The number one thing I wanted was revenge cause this is what he did to me,” Pourbaghkhany said according to court documents.
“This was the guy who attacked me first.
“This is like self defence, isn’t it, cause like I was attacked first and they used the knife, and I thought they had a knife – that’s why I took the bottle with me.”
However the crown prosecution did not concede that the victim was responsible for injuring Pourbaghkhany.
“He took his anger out on the young 16-year-old in circumstances which are not clear as to the basis for him to be assailed upon,” Mr Reiss said.
“He may have been mistaken in his belief as to his involvement, but he was mistaken.”
Mr Reiss took into account that both had expressed remorse as well as the fact they were on conditional release orders at the time of the offence.
The court also heard that Park had contracted Covid while in jail and was in isolation.
They were both sentenced to 18 months in jail with a 10-month non-parole period meaning they were available for immediate release.
