A former restaurateur who lashed out and left a waiter paralysed has walked free after a judge said his action was “dangerous but not truly wicked".

The family of victim Hun Kyu Lee, 29, have sold their farm and their fields to pay the £40,000 of his medical treatment, which included three operations on his skull, Kingston Crown Court heard on Friday.

He is still paralysed down one side, lying in a hospital bed in South Korea, and cannot speak beyond repeating simple words.

South Korean Sung Kuk Mun, 34, had been drunkenly celebrating his birthday at Imperial Karaoke Bar, Old Malden, on April 17 last year when he pushed Mr Lee to the floor, where he bashed his head, the judge in the case said.

After watching CCTV of the incident, Judge Peter Birts rejected evidence from police that unemployed Mun had hurt Mr Lee deliberately by punching him or hitting him in the face or head.

Why Mun hit Mr Lee, who was described at an earlier hearing as a former colleague, was described as a mystery.

Mun, of Coombe Road, New Malden, was sentenced to six months in prison at Kingston Crown Court on Friday, after Judge Birts took into account his guilty plea for grievously bodily harm without intent.

He also read a petition of 100 people describing Mun’s good deeds and character.

But he was allowed to walk free with his sister and her Salvation Army vicar, after taking into account the time he had already served behind bars.

Police initially thought Mr Lee could die, sparking a murder investigation.

To read Mun’s exclusive interview with the Surrey Comet about why he lashed out, his unsuccessful attempts to apologise to Mr Lee’s family, his shame in New Malden’s Korean community, and why he cannot afford to pay a penny towards the medical bills, buy Friday’s revamped and relaunched edition.