Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, December 12, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - A 31-year-old man has been ordered to leave Yellowknife when he completes his jail sentence for threatening his ex-girlfriend and her friend.

"You are to leave the city of Yellowknife following your release, and are not to return for any purposes except those required by law," Judge Brian Bruser told the accused Dec. 10 in his sentencing decision.

The man was convicted of uttering a death threat, uttering a threat to destroy property and breach of probation after a three-day trial.

The charges stemmed from phone calls the man made while in jail in July for breaching an emergency protection order against the victim.

The man called his girlfriend's home from jail and told her friend that he was going to burn her house down with her in it. The man made several calls to the victim during his time in custody.

The man told corrections staff the threats were not serious.

The man's defence lawyer, Stephen Shabala, asked for a sentence of time served, telling the court his client had grown up in foster homes and had been diagnosed with two psychiatric illnesses: bipolar disorder and hypermania.

The man told the court he was not on medications for these illnesses at the time of the offences, but had since been receiving treatment.

He also said he had a job and living arrangements awaiting him in with a family friend in Edmonton.

Crown lawyer Shelley Tkatch presented the man's criminal record, which Bruser noted was very long and included "serious crimes of violence."

He sentenced the man to 13 months in jail, minus nine months for pre-trial custody, leaving the accused with a four-month sentence.

Bruser made it a condition of his probation that the man leave Yellowknife.

The man was also ordered to have no contact with the victim.

"I am still persuaded that you are obsessed with her," Bruser said.