A man who drove around South Dunedin and randomly attacked two strangers in an hour has been jailed for 20 months.
Joshua Reece Inglis (22) had been given a glass pipe by a friend earlier on March 24, he said.
''I just used whatever was in it. I wasn't thinking,'' he said.
The ensuing hours were hazy memories, his counsel Chris Lynch said.
Inglis appeared in the Dunedin District Court this week after admitting charges of injuring with intent to injure and assault with intent to injure.
He first struck at 7.50pm as he was driving down Hillside Rd.
The defendant saw a stranger carrying groceries, parked and began yelling that the man owed him $1000.
The victim fled towards a service station forecourt with Inglis in pursuit.
For an unknown reason, the defendant removed his top and followed the man bare-chested, police said.
Inglis pushed the man in the back, returned to his car, cut the victim off as he left the petrol station and punched him several times in the head.
He continued to scream about the money he was supposedly owed and threw a few more punches before leaving in his Subaru.
Nearly an hour later, as Inglis cruised along Prince Albert Rd, he spotted two men attack another man.
Rather than assist the victim, the defendant stopped his car and waded in.
He kicked the man in the chest and followed it up with punches to the head and body.
Later, he booted the man at least five times before leaving the scene.
Judge Kevin Phillips called it ''gratuitous street violence'' but accepted neither victim suffered serious long-lasting injury.
Ms Lynch said her client suffered from anxiety and ADHD, and had a dysfunctional upbringing.
Inglis had spent time living with his mother in Australia before their relationship broke down and he came to Dunedin to be with his grandmother.
The grandmother, the court heard, had refused to provide her home as an address for the defendant to serve an electronically-monitored sentence.
However, Judge Phillips said if a viable property became available for such a sentence Inglis could apply to have his prison term converted.
