No conditional sentence for woman beater
Salem Gordon Leon Paul, 27, of Bilijk First Nation, pummelled girlfriend repeatedly last fall, inflicting severe injuries, including broken and cheekbone, major head laceration
A judge denied a request for a community-based sentence for a Bilijk (Kingsclear) First Nation man who battered his girlfriend last fall, noting it would be inappropriate given the repeated violence.
Salem Gordon Leon Paul, 27, of Veterans Court on the Bilijk (Kingsclear) First Nation, was back before Fredericton provincial court Judge Lucie Mathurin on Wednesday to hear her decision on his sentence.
He appeared in person in custody at the Justice Building for the proceeding.
Paul had previously admitted to counts of aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm and assault, all perpetrated on his then-girlfriend Miranda Berubé last fall.
He’d also pleaded guilty to related charges of unlawful entry into her home, assaulting two Mounties by menacing them with a knife, and possessing that knife for the purpose of committing an offence.
During a sentencing hearing Friday, court heard that Paul assaulted the victim repeatedly on several occasions.
- He punched her in the head and torso repeatedly on Nov. 3, breaking one of her ribs.
- He again punched her in the head repeatedly and smashed her on the top of the head with an object, cutting her scalp and knocking her unconscious Nov. 29. In the process, he sustained a broken left cheekbone and jaw, and she required stitches to close the wound on her head.
- Paul assaulted her again Dec. 20, entered her home unlawfully afterward and brandished a knife when Mounties tried to arrest him and remove him from the residence.
The Crown recommended a prison term of 4½ years, less credit for time spent on remand, while the defence asked for a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
Defence lawyer L.A. Henry said that way, her client could get treatment for the root cause of his violent behaviour: his severe alcoholism.
Mathurin reserved her decision at that time.
On Wednesday, she said a community-based sentence wasn’t in keeping with the principles of sentencing, given the circumstances of the case.
The judge acknowledged there are numerous mitigating elements in the case, among them mental-health issues such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and borderline personality disorder; generational and personal trauma due to his Indigenous heritage; and addiction to drugs, alcohol and gambling as a result of that troubled background.
“He also witnessed domestic violence between his parents [as a child],” she said.
But Mathurin said the Criminal Code of Canada specifically notes that committing offences against an intimate partner is a serious aggravating factor.
While Paul’s criminal record is a short one, she said, it includes past violent offences, including a previous crime stemming from intimate-partner violence.
Given the repetition of the violence during his relationship with Berubé, the judge said, a conditional-sentence order would be insufficient to fulfil certain principles of sentencing, noting deterrence and denunciation.
Instead, Mathurin imposed a three-year prison sentence, less credit for the time Paul had already served on remand.
After the customary 1½-to-one formula was applied to that remand time, that brought his remand credit to 299 days, or about 10 months.
That means Paul’s sentence going forward comes to about two years and two months in prison.
The judge also ordered him to submit a DNA sample for inclusion in a criminal database, prohibited him from possessing firearms and other weapons for 10 years following his release from prison, barred him from having contact with Berubé while incarcerated and ordered the knife forfeited to the Crown.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.