A young man will serve a three-year sentence for a knife attack that seriously injured a teenaged Elliot Lake girl in early 2021.
In March, a jury found the 19-year-old — who was 16 at the time of the attack — guilty of three offences, including attempted murder and aggravated assault.
He also was convicted of sexual assault for offences that occurred in the weeks before the attack.
Last Friday, Superior Court Justice Michael Varpio sentenced him as a young offender in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).
The man, who turns 20 in August, will spend 11 months in secure custody at a youth justice facility, then 12 months in an open custody centre, followed by one year under community supervision (probation).
He can't be identified under the YCJA, and a court-ordered publication ban prohibits reporting information that identifies the victim.
The teen was walking the 17-year-old girl home on March 11, 2021, when he suddenly attacked her at a bus stop near Axmith Avenue and Frame Crescent.
He "slashed" the centre of her neck with an edged weapon. His actions didn't puncture the skin but caused prominent scars.
The offender then stabbed the victim in the side, causing a six-centimetre laceration to her liver and a four-centimetre wound to her diaphragm.
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These life-threatening injuries left several physical scars and "severe psychological trauma," Varpio said when he imposed the sentence.
The victim suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and fears being touched or having contact with others.
Referring to her victim impact statement, the judge noted she has moved out of the province to "generate some semblance of safety."
During a June 10 hearing, prosecutors Marie-Eve Talbot and Robert Skeggs called for a three-year sentence in a secure custodial facility to reflect the severity of the crime.
Defence lawyer Eric McCooeye argued a two-year sentence would be appropriate given his client's immaturity at the time of the offence and his otherwise good background and pro-social life.
He suggested 12 months in open custody, followed by a 12-month probationary period.
After the jury found the teen guilty of the crimes in March, the Crown applied to have him sentenced as an adult.
Following a hearing in May, Varpio found the young man didn't have "an adult appreciation of the moral gravity of his serious actions" and should be sentenced as a young person.
He was involved with an older peer group, who were "seemingly living a pseudo-fantasy life" where reality and online fantasy blurred at some level.
His moral sophistication seems to have been "more consistent with childlike role playing than with adult appreciation of morality," the judge wrote in that May 31 decision.
He got caught up with trying to impress this older group and stabbed the victim with "a murderous intent that he likely did not appreciate."
On Friday, Varpio described the offender as an emotionally immature and "seemingly normal young man" at the time of the attack.
The teen had average grades, a part-time job and no record.
"Put another way, but for this crime, one would not think this young man would find himself in trouble with the law."
Since then, he has been attending college, is engaged, has become a Christian and says he wants to work in the chaplaincy.
The judge also noted the young man didn't take responsibility for his actions or show remorse when he spoke to the court.
Likewise, there were no such indications of this in his pre-sentence and psychiatric reports.
There also was nothing in these reports suggesting any risk of recidivism or threat to society, Varpio said.
He pointed to the aggravating factors. It was an unprovoked attack on a vulnerable victim, who he left to die.
His actions left her with lasting physical and psychological scarring.
The offender also had considered murdering the girl for some time, but "this mulling fell short of planning and deliberation."
Varpio said he disagreed with the defence's two-year sentence recommendation.
The aggravating factors in this case call for nothing less than the three-year maximum sentence, permitted under the legislation, to address the severity of the offender's actions.
The judge said the Crown's position of three years in secure custody is certainly reasonable, but doesn't adequately take into account the offender's circumstances.
He was a "young person that fell under the spell of an older group of individuals and his immaturity clearly contributed to his criminal behaviour."
A blended sentence, which Varpio imposed, would likely have the desired effect of holding him accountable for his actions while rehabilitating him in the "least restrictive way."
He also prohibited the man from possessing weapons for life and ordered him to provide a DNA sample.