If you ignored the prison greens, Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah Al-Ahmadzai might have seemed as if he was in a quiet study cubicle at a library as he was jailed for 18 years over a shooting at a gay nightclub in western Sydney.

For nearly two hours, the 26-year-old silently busied himself writing and reading with hardly a glance upwards as his jail sentence was handed down in the Parramatta District Court on Friday.

"I notice you've been focusing on other material as I went through the judgment but if you want to pay attention," Judge James Bennett remarked at one point.

Al-Ahmadzai appeared via audiovisual link and, as with previous court appearances, refused to stand for the judge.