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'He disfigured her' Man faces jail time after vicious,
assault on woman
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, August 14, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A 36-year-old Yellowknife man could spend anywhere from three to six years in prison for attacking and biting a woman, leaving her face disfigured.
Mark Inuktalik, originally from Ulukhaktok, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and refusing to supply a breath sample on June 3. He drunkenly attacked the woman on March 18, 2012.
Inuktalik was scheduled to be sentenced Monday, but Justice Shannon Smallwood adjourned the sentence until Wednesday. Crown and defence lawyers still need to discuss how many of the 513 days Inuktalik has already served will go toward his sentence.
At around 5 a.m. on March 18, the victim was walking out of a Fort Gary apartment with another man. Inuktalik saw the victim as he was driving by, pulled up to her and demanded she get in the vehicle.
The victim was known to Inuktalik. Inuktalik, who had been drinking, sped off toward the Ingraham Trail, calling the victim a series of explicitly derogatory terms.
The victim attempted to escape the vehicle as it sped down the highway, opening the passenger door and signalling for help. They eventually came to a stop near the Yellowknife River.
Once stopped, Inuktalik began physically assaulting the victim. He hit her on the head repeatedly, saying he was going to make the victim so ugly no one would want her.
Inuktalik then turned even more savage, biting the face and arm of the victim. The tip of her nose and upper lip hung by the skin afterwards.
She required 22 stitches in her nose and six to her upper lip and was hospitalized for four days. She has since required plastic surgery in Edmonton to repair her nose and lip.
After biting parts of her face, Inuktalik left the vehicle, screaming obscenities. The victim begged to go to the hospital. Inuktalik eventually drove her back to Stanton Territorial Hospital, where she was admitted at 5:45 a.m.
RCMP were dispatched to find Inuktalik after the victim told hospital staff she was assaulted. An RCMP constable found the accused at 6:48 a.m., passed out in his vehicle on Finlayson Drive.
"He wouldn't have acted this way if he was sober," Gary Wool, Inuktalik's attorney, argued. "It's not an excuse - not intended to be presented as an excuse. It helps to explain."
Wool said the accused claims to have no memory of the event.
"Mr. Inuktalik did a terrible thing," Wool said.
The Crown is asking for a sentence of five to six years in prison, while Wool asked for between three and five years. Inuktalik has 29 prior convictions, five for violent offences.
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