Following a trial, the defendant was found guilty of assault causing bodily harm and breaching a release order by having contact with his former girlfriend.
The assault involved two punches to the face, resulting in a fractured jaw and broken tooth, and caused significant physical, emotional, and financial harm to the complainant.
The court considered sentencing principles including denunciation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and proportionality, as well as aggravating factors (severity of injuries, intimate partner violence, children present) and mitigating factors (first offender, refugee claimant status, employment, community support, qualified remorse).
The Crown sought 18 months imprisonment, while the defence sought a conditional or intermittent sentence.
The court rejected a conditional sentence due to the extreme nature of the assault and the defendant's qualified remorse, imposing a 12-month custodial sentence for the assault and a concurrent 30-day sentence for the breach, followed by two years of probation.