CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A Charlottetown man who was charged with an assault that left his victim hospitalized with part of his leg crushed was sentenced Monday to four months of house arrest.
Matthew Alain Murphy, 40, appeared before Judge John Douglas in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Lisa Goulden said Murphy approached the victim outside of the Confederation Court Mall on Sept. 29, 2018.
Goulden played a video of the assault that showed the victim running into the building near the TD Bank with Murphy following him.
Murphy is seen on the video catching up to the victim and shoving him into a partition.
He then walks away leaving the victim on the floor.
During her submissions, Goulden referred to a victim impact statement that mentioned the victim struggled with mental health issues before and is now afraid to leave home because he worries he will be assaulted.
Goulden said the assault broke the victim’s tibia, and the area when the bone meets the knee was crushed.
The break also caused nerve damage leaving the victim unable to lift the front part of his foot.
Goulden said the victim spent four months in hospital while he recovered and was re-admitted three times because of infections.
The court heard the victim needs a walker to get around.
'I lost my cool'
A pre-sentence report was also prepared for the case, in which Murphy said he meant to warn the victim to stay away from his family and didn’t intend to hurt him.
Before hearing his sentence, Murphy addressed the court and said he didn’t punch the victim or use a weapon.
“I lost my cool,” he said.
Murphy said he hoped the court would show some mercy because if he didn’t get a conditional sentence, his wife would have to leave her job to be home with their son who has issues he is working through.
“I’m not worried about myself. I’m worried about what will happen to him if I’m gone,” Murphy said.
Douglas said denunciation was an important issue to consider and, in many cases, other innocent parties are involved.
He also said he felt a conditional sentence could give the necessary denunciatory message.
As part of the conditional sentence, Murphy will have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet if his probation officer directs him to and he is banned from having any contact with the victim or the victim’s caregiver.
He must provide a DNA sample for the national databank and will be on probation for one year after his sentence ends.
