Ontario criminal | Assault
ASSAULT CAUSING BODILY HARM
No realistic suggestion that complainant consented to being slapped or stabbed
Accused charged with assault causing bodily harm, uttering death threat, aggravated assault by wounding, forcible confinement, possession of cocaine for purposes of trafficking, simple possession of cocaine, and possession of proceeds of crime. Main issue was whether force was applied by complainant intentionally, due to anger and animosity over unpaid debt, or whether use of force was part of consensual play-fighting or was accidental. There was dispute as to whether complainant was ever confined on night in question or was ever threatened with death. Complainant and accused were casual friends who had number of other common friends who would all party together on occasion. Complainant owed accused small $200 debt which he admittedly had not repaid in full. Accused and complainant were all at mutual friend’s flat when acts of violence and threatening and confinement alleged were all said to have occurred. Later following morning, complainant returned home and his parents called police and ambulance and he was treated at hospital for various injuries. Complainant testified that he did not want to go, but did not want scene made in front of his father, so he went with accused but not before telling his father to call police if he did not come home by dark. Complainant’s father and his then girlfriend testified to background circumstances. Accused guilty of assault causing bodily harm and aggravated assault by wounding. Complainant’s injuries conformed perfectly to his version of events. Accused admitted backhand slap to face early in evening and he admitted it could have caused cut to inside of complainant’s lip. Accused admitted poking knife at complainant, and puncturing his skin, once in hand and once in thigh. Admitted acts constituted all essential elements of two separate counts of assault causing bodily harm. There could be no realistic suggestion that complainant consented to being slapped in face or to being stabbed with knife, as these acts were sudden and unannounced, they caused bodily harm and complainant was admittedly upset when he was stabbed. Accused’s self-induced intoxication was not available as defence. Court satisfied that complainant was credible witness and that assaults happened in manner that he described and his evidence was corroborated by several witnesses. Accused was found to be not credible and his version of events lacked sense. Court satisfied that half-inch long cut to complainant’s left thigh, which bled and caused him to limp and which required two stitches to close it at hospital, met definitions of “wounding”.
R. v. Khalili-Arabi (Sep. 19, 2013, Ont. S.C.J., M.A. Code J., File No. 13-50000051-0000) 109 W.C.B. (2d) 257.
