J-School Court

Young Man Jailed for Five Months for ‘Brutally Assaulting’ His Girlfriend

An example of court reporting. Originally posted here. 

Ryan Brown was sent to jail for five months for beating up his new girlfriend. He violated his probation and breached an undertaking. Judge Mary Jane Richards handed down the sentence yesterday.

“I find it the most difficult thing to do to send a young person to jail,” said Judge Richards. “But I can’t say society is safe with you out there.”

Brown had been released on probation Dec 17. He and Andrea Barber had been dating for two weeks. She called the police at 2:29am April 1.

Her right eye was swollen shut and there were marks on her neck.

Brown and Barber began fighting at the bar. They went to Barbers apartment and continued yelling and calling each other names. Brown pushed her to the ground, jumped on her, and she was knocked unconscious. She woke up and tried to phone for help. Brown threw the phone on the ground and smashed her head off the headboards of her bed.

“Do you know what I can do to you?” Brown allegedly said, in a statement from Barber, read by the Crown.

Barber ran upstairs to her landlord’s apartment and yelled for help.

She was taken to the hospital for x-rays and CAT scans.

“If you kick someone in the head, you don’t know if they’ll ever wake up again,” said Judge Richards.

Brown sat with a straight face and an aqua blue t-shirt.

“He has trouble controlling his anger when he consumes alcohol,” said Billy Corbey, the Crown Prosecutor.

He had already been ordered to attend alcohol and anger management. He went to the assessment, but he skipped his first appointment.

Brown pleaded guilty.

“I don’t know how many more ways you can be told that you shouldn’t drink,” said Richards.

“I feel terribly sorry for my actions,” Brown said. “Not only because I was in the wrong, but because I need to better myself. I feel I would benefit more from anger and alcohol services at home under house arrest then back at jail.”

“You don’t have a long history, it has only started recently, for some reason,” said Richards. “Society has to have faith that the courts will deal with these matters.”

She sentenced him to five months in jail.

“If you had been older it would have been longer, I had to look at your youthfulness,” said Richards. “You should never drink again.”