A teen girl who knifed a man on crutches on an OC Transpo bus in a dispute over a seat was handed three months of house arrest and probation Thursday.
Ontario Court Justice Lise Maisonneuve argued that an armed assault on a stranger —whose lung collapsed — is too serious for the probation order sought by the defence.
“This is a violent crime where a knife was used,” she said. “(The victim) was on a public bus when this occurred.”
But she noted that the 17-year-old has no criminal record, works and goes to school and comes from a supportive family.
“It appears to be out of character for her to act as she did,” Maisonneuve said.
The girl pleaded guilty in November to aggravated assault in connection with the incident near Blair and Montreal roads on June 12, 2009.
According to a witness, 29-year-old Dan McGlynn, whose ankle was in a cast, had his things, including his crutches, on four seats. The girl got angry and the two started name-calling.
The girl started kicking McGlynn’s cast and a pushing match ensued. The girl’s friend tried to break it up but the girl — armed with a knife — yelled that she was going to stab McGlynn if he didn’t shut up.
He kept pushing her and called her a bitch. When he reached for the knife, she stabbed him and fled, leaving McGlynn badly hurt and screaming for an ambulance.
He wrote in a victim impact statement that he feared he’d die, leaving his four-year-old daughter fatherless.
“She would have grown up never knowing her father,” he wrote. “Why? For one of many seats on a bus.”
Noting that judges have to focus on rehabilitation and consider all options other than jail when sentencing youths, Maisonneuve handed the girl three months of deferred custody during which she can only go to school, work or go out with her parents and has a strict curfew, then 21 months of probation.
She also has to write a letter of apology to McGlynn, submitted a DNA sample to the national registry and is banned from possessing weapons.
The girl said she carried a knife when she would be out after dark because she and a girlfriend had been chased.
I think this sentence is completely appropriate because youths are supposed to be rehabilitated because prison can actually cause further recidivism and criminal activities. This girl has no record and goes to school and work and this is completely appropriate.
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