No jail for Australian attacker who threw chair leg in man's eye, neck

MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian man who hurled a metal chair at another man, leaving one of its legs lodged 4 inches into his eye socket and neck, was sentenced Tuesday to 400 hours of community service.

Liam Peart, 20, hurled the metal chair during a nightclub brawl in Melbourne in January, hitting Shafique El-Fahkri, 19, who was standing about 10 feet away.

A leg of the chair plunged into his eye socket and down into his neck. Surgeons removed the chair leg in a three-hour operation through the right side of El-Fahkri's neck, according to media reports.

Thinking he had killed the man, Peart panicked and ran. He surrendered to police the next day.

Peart pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to one charge of negligently causing serious injury. In addition to 400 hours of unpaid community service, he will be monitored by corrections officers for two years.

Magistrate Peter Reardon told Peart he was lucky El-Fahkri survived.

"It's a blessing in a sense this young man was not killed or really seriously harmed," he said. "It might be a wake-up call for you that there are worse off people than yourself."

El-Fahkri spent a month in intensive care at a Melbourne hospital. The attack left him with a raspy voice, but 95 percent of his vision has been restored.