A skull-breaking thug who nearly killed a young man was sent back to jail just two months after serving a prison sentence for a separate violent attack on a woman.
David Hona, 30, made headlines in 2014 when he was sentenced in the NSW District Court for hitting then-23-year-old Michael McEwen in the face, knocking him unconscious.
He then stomped on him while he lay helplessly on the path.
Doctors had to surgically remove a part of Mr McEwen’s skull to save his life. He was in an induced coma for eight days.
Hona pleaded guilty to reckless grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to six years and nine months for the vile assault in the Sydney suburb of Bondi.
He was released on parole after four years and nine months.
But the court heard several years later, he was punished for a chillingly similar violent act.
In September 2022, Hona was sentenced to two years prison for assault occasioning actual bodily harm on a woman.
The court heard he stomped on the woman’s face during an argument, leaving her with a broken eye socket.
He was released on parole for that offence on March 8, 2023.
But just weeks later, while still subject to extended supervision, the court heard he failed a drug test and was arrested for failing to comply with his supervision order.
After his arrest, he threatened and pushed a police officer in his cell, the court was told.
For the supervision order breach and intimidation of a police officer on duty, Hona was sentenced last month to an aggregate term of 10 months prison with a five-month non-parole period after pleading guilty to the offences.
At the NSW District Court on Thursday, he successfully appealed that sentence.
His lawyer Sophie Toomey told the court the drug test breach on April 16 was linked to Hona’s longstanding drug abuse.
She said arrangements had been made for Hona to enter full-time residential rehabilitation upon his release and he would be subject to strict supervision by community corrections, including wearing an ankle bracelet.
“In terms of the intimidation, it was a couple of utterances in the police cell following his arrest, no doubt an expression of his extreme frustration,” Ms Toomey said.
But the crown prosecutor submitted the offences were “more significant” than what Ms Toomey put forward.
“He was released to parole on March 8 and a few weeks later failed (a drug test) three times”.
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The prosecutor said he intimidated a police officer and then pushed him.
Ultimately, Judge Mark Williams upheld the sentence appeal and re-sentenced Hona to nine months prison starting April 21 this year and expiring January 20, 2024.
He will be eligible for parole on August 20.
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