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One kick, six months
Court sends message against violence by Ian Elliot
INUVIK (Feb 13/98) - One drunken kick to the face during a fight at a dance has netted an Inuvik man six months in jail.
After a lengthy three-way discussion between Judge Brian Bruser and lawyers
on the difference between a vicious attack and a vicious act in territorial
court last month, Bruser brushed off a joint- submission for a three-month
sentence and imposed a six-month term, saying he had been prepared to go as
high as a year for the Oct. 13 assault that took place during a dance at
the arena.
Bruser said he wanted to issue a public warning about the
consequences of assaults and drew parallels with the Andy Jerome case.
Jerome died when a punch to the jaw twisted his head and broke a blood
vessel in this neck.
"People, in fact, people in this community here have been known to
die from fewer blows than you administered," he told the 22-year-old, who
had been convicted in 1996 for assaulting the same man.
Court heard the fight began as a consensual one between the two men
but charges were laid after the one man kicked the victim in the face when
he was on the ground, cutting open his lip. Both were drunk and the victim
admitted in a written statement to having drunk as many as 20 beers that
night.
"This can only be described as a vicious attack," said prosecutor
Rob Kilpatrick, who agreed with defence counsel Andrew Fox that a light
sentence was acceptable because the victim's injuries were minor.
Bruser, whose detailed questions included a query as to what kind
of shoes the man was wearing when he administered the kick, said the fight
was not itself vicious because the two agreed to it, but the kick itself
was. Because it took place in public he said he could not agree with a
light sentence that could be served on weekends.
He said the man showed, "an attitude and a behavior showing
unresolved, ongoing anger problems which when combined with alcohol,
creates further victims." |