Robert Sidney Cecil Payne, 28, was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent in Orange District Court last Friday.

He was sentenced to nine years in jail, with a five-and-a-half-year non-parole period.

His victim is outraged at the leniency of the sentence.

“With his long record of violence he should be behind bars for life,” Ms Eldridge said.

“He’s given me a life sentence.

“I don’t know why they try to rehabilitate someone like that.”

Ms Eldridge spent several weeks in Westmead hospital following the attack, four of them in a coma, and now struggles daily with simple tasks. 

Payne savagely attacked Ms Eldridge in her home in Parkes at 3.30am on April 19, inflicting injuries with a wooden chair leg with a nail protruding from it.

Ms Eldridge was found  by her flatmate, covered in blood and fighting for her life.

Today, she bears the scars of the attack, wearing sunglasses whenever she can to hide her damaged eye, and the lacerations to her face.

She also has scars on her arm, which was broken and deeply lacerated when she tried to protect herself, as well as on her neck, where paramedics performed a life-saving tracheotomy when she had difficulty breathing due to her facial fractures.

“I thought I was going to die and I just kept praying. I pretended I was dead and he kept hitting me,” Ms Eldridge said.

She decided to move to Orange to put the past behind her.

“I had to throw everything out of the house where I lived. The memories were too painful,” she said.

Giving her victim impact statement in court was a major hurdle for her.

“It bought everything back to me - but I knew I had to do it.  People like this have to be stopped,” she said.

Ms Eldridge knew her attacker through a family member when she was living in Parkes.

Despite her ordeal Ms Eldridge is trying to make a go of things in Orange.

“I went off to TAFE to do a computer course and some other courses, although it was hard to see, but the support I received there was amazing,” she said.

“Whoever would have thought it, me having the chance to do a computer course.” 

Payne pleaded guilty to the attack on Ms Eldridge, which entitled him to a 25 per cent reduction in his sentence.

When he is eligible for release Payne is expected to be sent back to South Australia to serve out the remainder of his manslaughter sentence after his breach of parole.

Ms Eldridge hopes to appeal the sentence.

The Department of Public Prosecutions has 28 days to lodge an appeal.

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A HISTORY OF VIOLENT CRIMES

Robert Sidney Payne was convicted of the manslaughter of a man in South Australia in 2005. 

Payne and a group of other males punched and stomped on a man who confronted the group after one of them smashed a window in the victim’s home.

He breached his parole once in South Australia and was returned to jail.

When he was released on parole a second time, he was granted one week’s leave to attend the funeral of a cousin in Lake Cargelligo, but he did not return.

He was on bail from Parkes Court for a serious assault and affray, and was reporting daily to Parkes Police Station when he attacked Ms Eldridge.

The court was told Payne had a lower-than-average intelligence, but did not have a disability or psychological disorder.

Payne told police he had consumed between 15 and 24 alcoholic drinks on the night he attacked Ms Eldridge.

Payne was arrested by Parkes police after his DNA, found on the chair leg, matched that held by South Australian Police, who were told Payne’s court case had to proceed in NSW before he could be dealt with again by South Australian Police.