SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A mentally-ill man was sentenced to two years probation and time already served in jail after spending 10 months awaiting trial for sexual assault and assaulting a police officer.

He was found guilty in territorial court on Wednesday after a trial in which both sides agreed the crimes happened, and that he committed them, but not on whether he should be found criminally responsible.

The 40-year-old man has a history of mental illness and drug abuse, and has been on several medications throughout his life for his mental issues.

"He was overtired and unable to recall why or what he was thinking at the time (of the sexual assault)," said his lawyer, Abdul Khan.

He was arrested at the Gold Range on Jan. 27 after causing a disturbance at the Tree of Peace, and when RCMP tried to restrain him he flailed his arms and kicked one officer in the mid-section.

Then, on Jan. 29, he was arrested for sexually assaulting his niece. He had come to her house, in the dead of winter, without a shirt or socks on. He was saying things that did not make sense to his niece, and scaring her.

"He was hovering around and talking nonsense and scaring the complainant," said Judge Bernadette Schmaltz during sentencing.

She went to her bedroom and called her friend to ask her to call the police for her. He came to her bedroom door naked, then entered her bathroom, turned off the lights and asked her to come in with a towel and lay it on the bathtub.

When she refused, he grabbed her and she fell on the floor. Then he grabbed her legs, but she managed to break free as the police arrived and arrested the man. He's been in custody since then.

Dr. Robert Clemmey, who had been the man's psychiatrist in the past and who had compiled a report of his mental condition for the trial, told the court in September that he believed the man suffered from a condition called cycloid psychosis - a mental condition which combines features of paranoid schizophrenia and manic depression, but comes on in waves - for periods of time the afflicted operates almost as normal, but then the illness takes hold for a period of time.

The man was found criminally responsible for the crimes at the end of his trial in October.

During the start of his sentencing proceedings on Nov. 22, Crown prosecutor Jeannie Wynne-Edwards proposed a 15- to 18-month sentence plus two years of probation with a long list of conditions. After reading the conditions, Schmaltz said she was worried some conditions might be forcing the man to take treatment, which is unconstitutional.

"The tone of the conditions is 'we can't order you to take (treatment) but if you don't do it we will breach you,'" said Schmaltz.

Wynne-Edwards said the "general idea" is that he would be required to see a medical professional who may recommend treatment, and if he refuses the treatment he must meet and discuss it with his probation officer.

Schmaltz also said this also brought up the issue of privacy surrounding medical issues.

Defence lawyer Abdul Khan called the conditions "onerous and obtrusive" but said the man is agreeable to checking in with a doctor from time to time.

After a two-day adjournment, Schmaltz sentenced him to two-years of probation with the conditions that he not consume illicit drugs, that he attend any counselling or programs recommended by his probation officer, including substance abuse and life skills programs, as well as inform his probation officer if he stops taking any medication prescribed by a doctor.

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