A former associate of murdered Melbourne gangland boss Carl Williams has been jailed after a shocking daylight knife attack on a stranger.
Sean Sonnet, 55, appeared in Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up and pleaded guilty after receiving a 15-month prison sentence.
The court heard Sonnet was arrested in East Melbourne on August 31 last year, shortly after plunging a 30cm kitchen knife into the chest of a 27-year-old man and fleeing the scene.
Prosecutor Eli Fryar said Williams’ former partner, who was jailed alongside the man for conspiracy to murder over a planned attack in 2004, had been staying in a unit 150 metres from Powlett Reserve, where the attack happened.
The victim’s girlfriend approached Sonnet shortly after 9 a.m. and asked for a cigarette, but he said he didn’t have one.
This sparked an argument with the man, who said he didn’t believe Sonnet, before saying: “Move on, I’ve dealt with bigger, better looking people,” Fryar said.
“Yes, then let’s go,” Sonnet replied.
After exchanging more words and blows, Sonnet pulled out a kitchen knife and “lunged forward,” stabbing the man in the chest after he fell to the ground.
Sean Sonnet (pictured) plunging a 30cm kitchen knife into a 27-year-old man’s chest
He fled the scene but was arrested less than half an hour after police spotted him on the street.
His lawyer, Emma Turnbull, told the court Sonnet was on bail at the time after robbing an Aldi at knifepoint a year earlier, and had relapsed into drug use.
He said his client had been doing relatively well while on bail but had fallen back into bad habits.
“We’re dealing with an institutionalized man, we’re dealing with a man who feels too comfortable living in prison,” he said.
Sonnet is a former associate of murdered mob boss Carl Williams (pictured)
Sonnet was jailed for 15 months by Magistrate Tony Burns on charges of causing injury with intent, resisting police, possession of prohibited weapons and possession of drugs.
Mr. Burns ordered three months of the sentence to be served on top of his existing sentence for the robbery, but with time served, only nine days would be added to his non-parole period.
Williams was murdered by a fellow inmate while in Barwon Prison in April 2010, when he was 39.
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