KEY POINTS:
The brother of Socceroos star Tim Cahill will spend at least four years behind bars in Britain after partially blinding a man during a vicious attack.
Sean Cahill, 29, was sentenced to a maximum six years' jail in a London court overnight (AEDT) for causing grievous bodily harm
with intent to surveyor Christopher Stapley.
Mr Stapley was left partially blind in his right eye after the attack by Cahill, who will be eligible to apply for bail in three years and could be released after serving two thirds of his sentence.
Dressed in a grey suit, light blue shirt and tie, Cahill stood stony-faced with his hands clasped in front of him as judge Robert Rhodes handed down his sentence at Croydon Crown Court.
His mother Sisifo, girlfriend and three male friends looked on in silence from the public gallery as the judge described how Mr Stapley had suffered "significant trauma" as a result of Cahill's attack.
"It is very sad to see a young man with so much good in him and so much to give the community convicted of this extremely serious offence," the judge said. "But ... you ran and kicked a defenceless man, who was on the ground, at least twice. You kicked him in the face and his injuries were terrible."
Before being led out of the courtroom, Cahill was hugged and kissed by his girlfriend and mother, who covered her eyes with her hands and quietly sobbed after her son left the room.
His younger brothers Tim, 28, who has been enjoying enormous success at English Premier League club Everton, and Chris 23, did not attend.
During his trial in November, Cahill denied kicking Mr Stapley in the face during the brawl outside a taxi office in Bromley, Kent, after leaving a local nightclub in the early hours of July 11, 2004.
Both had been with separate groups of friends when a fight erupted in the street.
Cahill, originally from Sydney, told the court he had been ordering food at a snack van outside the taxi station when his brother Chris became involved in an argument with a group of men.
He claimed he heard one of the men racially abuse his brother, who has Samoan heritage.
While Cahill, a former goalkeeper for the Wollongong Wolves, denied kicking Mr Stapley in the head during the brawl, traces of the victim's blood, hair and skin were found on the Australian's left shoe.
Cahill's imprisonment follows a four-month jail term imposed on him in July after he pleaded guilty to breaching his bail conditions by fleeing to Australia following his arrest for the attack on Mr Stapley in Britain in February 2005.
NSW police picked him up in March after a request from British police and he was extradited two months later.
- AAP
