Man spared jail after assaulting neighbour

A disgruntled man who temporarily blinded his neighbour by pouring liquid chlorine over his fence and splashing the man's face has been spared jail.

In sentencing Giovanni Mancuso to an 18-month good behaviour bond and a $1500 fine, Deputy Chief Magistrate O'Brien said his conduct was "outrageous".

"You're laying in your backyard, minding your own business, enjoying the beauty that North Bondi has to offer only to be met with liquid pool chlorine to your face by a disgruntled neighbour," he said.

Mancuso, 32, pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of damaging or destroying property.

His neighbour had been lying on his trampoline on March 6 when Mancuso threw liquid chlorine over the fence, which landed on the neighbour's arms and face.

He was taken to hospital and had difficulty seeing with his right eye for a few days but suffered no permanent injury.

The magistrate rejected a suggestion that the incident had been an accident.

"He's doing some cleaning in the backyard and somehow ... by some strange scientific phenomena [the liquid chlorine] goes up his side of the fence, across his neighbour's yard and down and lands on the neighbour," he said.

"That just sounds totally implausible."

The Crown alleged it happened in the context of an acrimonious relationship on the afternoon Mancuso was moving out.

"In a sense it was the last opportunity to get back at the neighbours," the crown prosecutor said.

The magistrate rejected an application to not record a conviction for Italian-born Mancuso.

His lawyer had submitted that a conviction "would spell the end" of his bid for permanent residency.