An Australian court has sentenced an Australian man to nine years in prison for a fatal ‘one-punch’ attack on a 23-year-old Irish man in Perth in 2013.

Thomas J Keaney, from Galway, died on December 28th, ten days after the attack.

The court sentenced 24-year-old Australian Abbas Yahya Al Jrood guilty of manslaughter earlier this year and was today sentenced to nine years behind bars.

Mr Keane’s family watched the oroceedings live on video link.

Prosecutor Laura Christian told

"To use a colloquial term, it was a king hit or a coward's punch," Ms Christian said, RTE report.

"The State submits the offender deliberately targeted the deceased. The State says he was unable to defend himself.

"The reality is it all happened very quickly.

"(But) he could have simply walked away."

The defence argued that Al Jrood was a responsible man who became caught up in a “dramatic incident” that led to the offence.

"We submit that this offence was an isolated event and an uncharacteristic aberration in an otherwise blameless and responsible life," defence lawyer Ken Bates said.

"He was someone who was caught up in the situation and made a split-second error of judgement."

Sarah Motherwell of the Australian Associated Press was in court for today's sentence hearing and she spoke with Newstalk Lunchtime