Yellowknife (Oct 22/04) - Four men who appeared in court on spousal assault charges are a "dark illustration" of the current climate of domestic violence in the Northwest Territories, a judge said Tuesday

"Too many people are doing this to their spouses," said territorial court Judge Brian Bruser.

"It's a dark illustration of the rampant (violence) that happens in this jurisdiction."

During a busy morning in the lower court, all four men appeared before Bruser in separate cases.

One man, a 37-year-old from Yellowknife, admitted to punching his wife "one or two times" after a night of drinking.

The woman had scratches on her face, back and hand and was bruised under her eye.

Bruser sentenced the man to two months in prison for the crime and another two months for an unrelated assault on a security guard.

In another case, an intoxicated 24-year-old man was walking with his common-law spouse when he became enraged, threw her to the ground and punched her in the face.

The man had a previous conviction on his record for spousal assault, along with convictions for assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon.

Bruser handed down a 60-day sentence and allowed the man to serve his time on weekends so he could continue taking computer courses.

Bruser also sentenced a 42-year-old man to two months in jail for punching his common-law wife six times after a drunken argument.

Crown attorney Sandra Aitken said the victim wanted to leave a party in the Range Lake area and her spouse did not. When the couple went outside he delivered several blows with a closed fist. Bruser criticized the man for assaulting his spouse over a relatively trivial argument.

In all three cases, the offenders were intoxicated, a pattern Bruser said is all too common in domestic assaults.

Time and time again

"I have been dealing with offenders who come back time and time again with entries on their record related to alcohol," he said.

In the final case, another Yellowknife man was convicted of assaulting his spouse following a trial earlier this month.

In three of the four cases, the victims were in court to support their spouses. Lawyers for the men indicated the couples were trying to work out their differences.

In the past, Bruser has said spousal assault rates in the NWT are among the highest in the country.

The names of the offenders do not appear in this story because of a court-ordered publication ban that prohibits identifying the victims of domestic and sexual assaults.