Yellowknife (May 10/06) - A homeless man was convicted Friday of twice beating his girlfriend in a heat-less storage shed the couple called "home" for most of last winter.

A homeless couple spent last winter in a shed beside the Tommy Forrest Ballpark near downtown Yellowknife. A long-time alcoholic was convicted of beating his girlfriend in the shack last week. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

The 44-year-old admitted alcoholic punched and kicked his common-law partner on Jan. 5 and Jan. 11, while the pair braved the harsh Yellowknife winter in a shack beside the Tommy Forrest Ballpark.

The attacks left the victim - who testified she drinks "almost every day" - with bruises on her stomach and arms. Both times she was forced to flee into the freezing night without shoes.

"I woke up and he was punching me in the head," the woman testified in territorial court. "I was tired of being assaulted."

Judge Brian Bruser called the man "dangerous and violent" when drunk. He sentenced the one-time Hay River resident to five months behind bars for those assaults and several other crimes.

Included in that tally was a March 19 incident outside a downtown hotel in which the man pulled down his pants and urinated on the street.

The man also admitted to hitting a downtown grocery store worker over the head with an orange-and-croissant-filled plastic bag. Employees had caught him shoplifting a bottle of hair spray. The toxic mixture has a high alcohol content.

"I consider myself intelligent," said the man, who has a long criminal record. "(But) I drank for a lot of years. I'm not afraid of asking for help when I need it."

The man has lived in Yellowknife for two years, said his lawyer, Kelly Payne.

During the attacks on his girlfriend, the couple was sleeping on a mattress in the ball diamond shack - a place where they had spent nearly five months.

The man does not like to stay at the Salvation Army, Payne said.

Friends occasionally spent the night in the shed as well, the woman testified.

"I'm used to it. I like staying outside."

The area around the green-sided, wooden shack was littered with at least a half-dozen hair spray bottles, Thursday afternoon.

A soiled blanket and pair of winter boots were also strewn on the ground outside the battered shed door.