A 16-year-old boy who’s been in the care of the provincial Community Services Department since 2001 has accepted responsibility for his role in a “chilling” attack on a boy at a bus stop in downtown Dartmouth last March.
The teenager, whose identity is protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, pleaded guilty last week in Halifax youth court to charges of aggravated assault and breaching probation.
He had originally been charged with attempted murder, robbery, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and breaching probation.
The boy has been in custody at the Nova Scotia Youth Facility in Waterville since March 30, the day after a 15-year-old boy was beaten and stabbed during an attack by two young men as he waited for a bus at Queen Square at about 11 p.m.
The victim, who had just gotten off work at a downtown restaurant, resisted the assailants’ efforts to steal his new cellphone.
The 16-year-old, in pleading guilty, admitted striking the boy with a piece of plastic pipe while the other attacker held him in a bear hug.
The victim was then stabbed several times in the abdomen, suffering collapsed lungs and a nick to his liver. He escaped from his attackers by running to catch up with a Metro Transit bus as it pulled away.
The boy was hospitalized for several days and missed two weeks of school.
Judge Jamie Campbell accepted a joint sentencing recommendation from lawyers and ordered the young offender to spend 74 more days in custody, followed by 37 days under strict supervision in the community.
Crown attorney Gary Holt said the 111-day sentence, combined with the 435 days of credit the boy received for his remand time, meant the overall penalty would amount to about 18 months.
The victim, now 16, told the court the attack has made him a stronger person.
“I don’t have nightmares about it,” the boy said. “I don’t let it haunt me, but at the time it was pretty gruesome. I can’t say I’ve seen that much of anybody’s blood, let alone my own.
“Had I not ran as fast and as hard as I did to catch that bus, I can honestly say I don’t think I would be here today.”
The boy said he would like to see the offender change his lifestyle. “I would like to maybe, at one point, have a conversation with him.”
Judge Campbell said that although the boy before him for sentencing didn’t wield the knife that night, “he was a party to a brutal and unprovoked attack.”
The judge described the assault as “chilling” and said incidents like this make everyone feel “less safe and less secure on the streets of the city.”
Judge Campbell spoke about the boy’s troubled life, which began in war-torn Somalia. “The kind of violence that he saw is not something that’s been described in detail, but from what we know about Somalia, we can all fill in the blanks in our own imagination,” the judge said.
“Since arriving in Canada, his transition with his family has not been easy. . . . They have not, as a group of people, adjusted well to life in Canada. He was separated from his family and he doesn’t understand why.”
The boy was placed with numerous foster parents and was living in a group home in Dartmouth at the time of the attack.
“Despite all of the best efforts of those involved in that system, he experienced frequent disruptions and disappointments,” Judge Campbell said of the boy. “As a consequence, he is very distrustful of the system and of all people in authority. His lack of connection with anyone has led him to try to make connections with less positive groups.” The boy has previous convictions for assault, theft, a driving offence and breaches.
Nick Pace, 19, of Cedar Drive in Truro was also arrested after the incident. He’s scheduled to stand trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court beginning Feb. 8 on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and two counts of breaching probation.
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Chronicle Herald
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