Borrowing medieval battle tactics, a 24-year-old Australian man poured boiling oil over his sleeping housemate last August because he bought a whole takeaway chicken instead of a quarter.

Today he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Justice Mark Weinberg said the man’s act was "of extraordinary violence bought about by your feelings of anger and resentment towards your victim. Yours was a cowardly act and one of great cruelty."