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Man convicted of beating Gameti woman Victim had to wait two days for RCMP to arrive to file complaint after assault Katherine Hudson Northern News Services Published Monday, February 4, 2013
While the assault occurred on Feb. 10, 2012, the victim could not file her complaint with RCMP nor have an officer photographically document her injuries, which included a black and swollen right eye, until police arrived to the fly-in community two days later. Gameti does not have a permanent RCMP detachment in the community of less than 300 but members are flown in on an intermittent basis. On the evening of Feb. 10, the victim was outside a residence smoking a cigarette when Raymond Gon, 37, pulled up in a truck. Since it was cold out, the victim got in the truck to finish her cigarette and started arguing with Gon for drinking and driving. She asked him for the keys and Gon began to drive. She was scared, said the Crown, and she grabbed the steering wheel. He parked the truck and the victim turned off the vehicle and grabbed the keys. Outside the truck, Gon pushed the woman up against the truck. The woman then got in the truck and drove away, with Gon in pursuit on his snowmobile. He blocked her on the road and walked up to the driver's side, opened the door and dragged her by the hair to the ground. He kicked her in the head and body five to six times and he then punched her five to 10 times. Gon's sister pulled up and intervened and Gon left and the victim drove the truck home. Crown prosecutor Jeannie Wynne-Edwards asked for three to four months in jail. She said Gon has a criminal record with two prior assaults. In one past assault conviction, Gon received a one-day sentence as a warning. "It appears he did not heed that warning," she said, calling the most recent assault "lengthy and prolonged," where the assault only stopped because Gon's sister intervened. "This wasn't a single punch, this was a beating," said Wynne-Edwards. Defence lawyer Peter Fuglsang said Gon has a good work ethic - having worked since he finished high school. He proposed an intermittent sentence so Gon could provide for his family and continue his employment at the mine. "Mr. Gon recognizes that he has a temper," said Fuglsang, adding Gon was assaulted as a youth. Judge Garth Malakoe agreed to the intermittent sentence, allowing Gon to travel between the North Slave Correctional Centre and Diavik every two weeks. "This was a long assault, a number of punches. He chased the vehicle," said Malakoe. Malakoe also ordered a one-year probation period which includes counselling for substance abuse, ordered Gon to pay a $50 victim of crime surcharge and to have no contact with the victim unless she consents.
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