A Sydney bus driver pulverised a disability pensioner, punching and kicking him more than 30 times after a fight about a bus route, a magistrate has found.
In sentencing Surya Narayan on Tuesday to at least six months in prison, Magistrate Jacqueline Milledge described the attack as the worst assault she had ever encountered.
Narayan, 45, from Macquarie Fields, faces a maximum of nine months in jail after the magistrate found him guilty of assaulting the passenger on the bus on July 16, 2009.
The court was told the pair had a dispute about the route through eastern Sydney when the bus terminated on Military Road in Dover Heights.
Anthony Luders, 47, admitted to arguing with Narayan and hitting the plastic driver shield, but Narayan told the court he thought Mr Luders was about to attack him.
"He walked up to me and abused me ... he has thrown a punch towards me," Narayan told Waverley Local Court on Tuesday.
"I was certain that he was going to hit me with a bottle next."
In-bus CCTV footage played to the court showed Narayan reacting to Mr Luders' approach by standing up and repeatedly punching him.
"He hopped out of his compartment and started throwing punches at me," Mr Luders told the court.
The footage shows Narayan continuing to beat Mr Luders even when the victim is on the floor in what Ms Milledge described as "senseless" and "relentless" bashing in which the driver "pulverises" the victim.
Mr Luders, who suffered two nose fractures along with cuts and bruises, was held down on the ground by Narayan until police arrived.
Narayan claims that during the fight Mr Luders hit him in the head with a bottle, but the prosecution said that was long after Narayan started punching him.
During the fight, Mr Luders fell from the bus and as he tried to get up the CCTV footage appeared to show Narayan kicking him in the face.
"It was a very brutal and persistent assault," Ms Milledge said.
"It was totally disproportionate to the argument that they were having.
"This is the worst assault I've ever seen."
Narayan said he was "really frightened" and that Mr Luders, who had previously consumed four long-neck beers, was verbally abusive towards him.
Narayan's lawyer, Sohan Singh, described his clients' conduct as "necessary" and that in his 21 years as a bus driver he had never lashed out at a passenger before.
"(Should the bus drivers just) have to wait to see what happens in a situation like that?" Mr Singh said.
Narayan, who suffered a dislocated shoulder when he fell out of the bus with Mr Luders during the scuffle, told the court he had been assaulted by a passenger on a previous occasion.
