Australian gets over 6 yrs in jail for attacking Indian

MELBOURNE: A court here has sentenced an Australian to over six years in jail for attacking an Indian taxi driver with knife, an incident that led to hundreds of Indian cabbies blocking the Melbourne streets last year.

Justice Elizabeth Curtain sentenced Parrish Chales to six-and-a-half years in jail, saying the stabbing was "random, unprovoked and frenzied" and the fact that the 45-year-old attacker had a hunting knife hidden in his pants showed a degree of "premeditation".

The judge said the unprovoked and unexpected assault on 23-year-old Jalvinder Singh was terrifying and left Singh with ongoing mental and physical injuries that would change his life, media reports said today.