Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 14/04) - A man convicted of assaulting his common-law spouse while intoxicated told the court he drinks because he's unemployed and sitting around the one-bedroom apartment he shared with the woman is stressful.

"I can't have friends over and watch hockey or football," the 51-year-old man told territorial court April 8.

On Oct. 17, 2003, he consumed about 30 drinks in 12 hours before returning home with his face bloodied in an altercation with another man after the bar closed.

Once home, he began to argue with his spouse, grabbed her around the neck, slapped her and threw her on the bed.

The woman eventually convinced her husband to go outside, saying she would drive him to the hospital, but instead took him to the RCMP detachment.

She no longer lives with the man.

The man is scheduled to be sentenced on April 16 after a trial on other charges.

In other court proceedings, an 18-year-old man was fined $750 for struggling with police after a wild house party in the Range Lake area last fall.

Sheldon Peart, 18, was sentenced April 7 in territorial court after pleading guilty to resisting arrest. Following a short trial, he was acquitted of throwing a rock at a police car.

The charges were in connection to a Sept. 18 party at a house on Herriman Road. About 60 people were at the party and police were called in by the host after the gathering got out of control.

Peart admitted to drinking between 12 and 15 at the party.

"(You) were drunk and stupid," Chief Judge Michel Bourassa told the teen.

Bourassa said he would like to send the young person on patrol with police on a Friday night, so he could appreciate the problems created by "drunks like you."

Meanwhile, a 22-year-old woman was given one year of probation for an unprovoked attack on a stranger outside a downtown bar last fall.

Krysta Thiem admitted to punching and kneeing another woman in the face outside the Black Knight on Sept. 7, 2003. Thiem, who said she didn't remember the attack because of an alcohol-induced blackout, was sentenced April 8 in territorial court to probation and one day in jail.

Judge Bernadette Schmaltz said Thiem's court appearance would satisfy the jail term.

Crown attorney Janice Walsh told the court Thiem walked up to a woman, punched her in the face, grabbed her by the hair then kneed her in the face before being pulled away.

The victim didn't fight back, said Walsh.

The woman was taken to Stanton Hospital with cuts and bruises to her face.

Thiem's lawyer Kelly Payne said her client, who has an assault conviction on her record, isn't normally a violent person and couldn't explain why the attack took place.