Man jailed over violent Sydney rampage

A man who led a violent rampage through inner Sydney that culminated in a near-fatal attack on two brothers out celebrating a buck's night will spend up to eight years behind bars.

Raymond Michael Sabongi was sentenced in the Downing Centre District Court on Friday after what the judge described as "vicious and cowardly attacks" on the streets of Sydney in 2010.

Sabongi was on a good behaviour bond for assaulting a former girlfriend at the time of the attacks.

"He was the provocateur, spreading a rampage of violence on innocent victims," Justice Hoy said.

Sabongi will be eligible for parole in February 2020.

The 26-year-old had pleaded guilty to affray and three assault charges over a night that began with him punching a waiter who had tried to stop his mate urinating on a restaurant door.

Less than half an hour later, Justice Hoy told the court, Sabongi and two friends approached a group of strangers as they waited outside a CBD pub.

"Please mate, we don't want a fight. We just want to go home," Wade Riley told him.

The offender replied, "You've got five seconds to run".

Then he threw the first punch.

When Wade's brother Ryan tried to step in, Justice Hoy said, Sabongi turned on him, striking him and forcing him onto the road, where he was hit by a passing car.

The attack ended with a bottle of vodka brought down on Ryan Riley's head, shattering his skull.

"He was in intensive care for days. Had he not been treated at the scene, he would have died," Justice Hoy said.

Ryan Riley's mother had previously told the court how the attack left her son with brain damage.

He had been a confident young man with a gift for music and dreams of becoming a songwriter, she said, but was now plagued by nightmares and flashbacks to the assault.

"He is tormented by the memory of it," Justice Hoy said.

In sentencing Sabongi to a minimum six years in jail, the judge also revoked the five good behaviour bonds to which the construction worker had been subject at the time of the latest offences.

He explained Sabongi had escaped jail time despite subjecting a girlfriend, whom he dated between 2006 and 2008, to "extraordinary acts of violence, abuse and cruelty".

In one incident, Justice Hoy said, Sabongi threw his then-girlfriend into a wall, held a pillow to her face and punched the pillow.

"She was terrified, thought he was going to kill her," Justice Hoy said.

"When she said she'd call the police, he said he would kill her parents ...

"(Sabongi) was given a chance to rehabilitate himself. Sadly, he has failed."

Sabongi will be required to undergo alcohol and anger management counselling as part of his sentence.