A MAN found guilty of assaulting a University of Newcastle international student on campus last year also stole his bike when the pair crossed paths in the months after the incident, a court has heard.

Magistrate Elaine Truscott sentenced Slade Hayford, 35, of Bernice Crescent, Waratah West, in Newcastle Local Court yesterday to nine months in prison with a six-month non-parole period for the original offence and three months for stealing the bike.

Hayford, who was on a suspended sentence at the time of the original incident, will also have to serve that six-month sentence.

Part of the sentences will be served concurrently and Hayford has been on remand, meaning he will be eligible for parole in November.

Hayford denied attacking the student, who is also a lecturer, in daylight between Warabrook train station and the university on March 8 last year.

He was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company in January.

The court head in January the victim was walking around Hayford and two others when one of them grabbed the victim's backpack.

The victim turned around and said, "The path is big enough for all," before he was bumped and fell.

Hayford punched the victim in the face and he later required six stitches to his chin.

The victim got up and walked to an emergency button, but it did not work and later called security from his office.

The pair crossed paths seven months later at Newcastle train station when the victim was meeting his wife to put their children on a train.

Hayford pleaded guilty to stealing the victim's bike on October 9 last year but his defence argued that Hayford did not know it belonged to the victim at the time, a claim Magistrate Truscott rejected.

"The only reason for him to take the bike was to antagonise [the victim]," Magistrate Truscott said.