SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 37-year-old Yellowknife man who dragged his girlfriend back into their residence by her hair after slapping her in the face three times received a six-month jail sentence in territorial court Tuesday.

"Jail is necessary," said Judge Christine Gagnon after sentencing the man, but deducted time for the days he's already served in jail since his Jan. 1, 2011 arrest.

"(The offender) needs to start working on himself and address those things that happened to him in the past because it makes him a dangerous person to be around, especially when he is drinking," she said.

Crown prosecutor Danielle Vaillancourt told the court on Jan. 1 at 12:15 a.m., the Yellowknife RCMP received a complaint of a domestic assault in progress at a Gitzel Street residence. The couple had been drinking throughout the evening, and after the man left the residence to run an errand, his girlfriend accused him of cheating on her.

As the argument became more heated, the man lost his temper and slapped her three times in the face, the second strike causing her nose to bleed.

She fled the residence and went to her neighbours for help, but the man chased her down and dragged her

back to the residence by her hair.

When the RCMP arrived, they could see woman holding her child arguing with the man in the kitchen, said Vaillancourt.

The man saw the officers outside and grabbed a knife and used it to tear his shirt off.

As he did, he told the woman when the officers come in "he was going to be ready." Instead, he ran up the stairs to his bedroom and threw the knife under the bed, and went back downstairs.

The RCMP tried to arrest the man, but he refused to put his arms behind his back. One of the officers "pepper sprayed" him, but this had no effect, Vaillancourt said.

As the officers continued trying to handcuff him, the man tried to remove equipment from one of the officer's belts.

Finally, after striking the man several times, the officers were able to handcuff him and bring him to the Yellowknife detachment where he was charged with assault, resisting arrest and breach of probation.

Vaillancourt described the man as "no stranger to the courts" with 48 prior convictions, including 18 for offences of violence.

He was already on probation at the time of the Jan. 1 offences.

Vaillancourt asked the court for a six to eight month jail sentence total for the offences, and that the man have no contact with the victim.

Defence lawyer Serge Petitpas requested the court consider the special circumstances of his client's past as a former victim of sexual assault beginning when he was seven years old. To cope, the man has resorted to alcohol and to violence, said Petitpas.

Gagnon also sentenced the offender to 18 months probation and ordered the man to have no contact with the victim, both while he is in custody and after his release. He was also ordered to provide a DNA sample to police.

When given the opportunity, the man quietly apologized to the court and the victim, saying there was "no excuse for striking the woman that I loved."

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