Update on the Courtenay, BC Attackers: Sentencing

We received a note from our friends at, "Keep Courtney Safe" stating that Rogers, White, and Huber have been sentenced for a racially-based attack on Jay Phillips in July 2009. The three appear to have been sentenced in December. Although the minimum sentence looks like it should have been roughly 6 months, the three men received much lighter sentences.

YouTube assault draws little jail time
Judge deplores 'liquor-fuelled stupidity'

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 | 11:09 PM ET CBC News

 

Two men have been handed conditional sentences and a third man will spend one day in jail for a B.C. assault that went viral on YouTube and was characterized as a hate crime.  

 

The three men were convicted of assault after punching and kicking 39-year-old Jay Phillips, a black man, in a Courtenay parking lot in July 2009, while one of the men yelled racial slurs.

Adam Huber, 25, will spend one day in jail for his part in the attack and was put on 12 months probation.

Robert Rogers, 25, was fined $500 and given eight months probation.

David White, who uttered the racial slurs, was sentenced under hate crime provisions of the Criminal Code.

White, 20, was fined $100, sentenced to 30 days community service, put on a curfew, and ordered to undergo psychological counselling.

Harsh words from judge

Judge Peter Doherty called the incident "liquor-fuelled stupidity," and called the convicted men "barbarous louts" who will be haunted by their crime for the rest of their lives.

The judge took into account the public embarrassment the men had suffered since the attack was posted online, said Crown prosecutor Bob Richardson.

"They have been subjected to and continue to be subjected to that," Richardson said. "That's something the judge took into consideration."

Phillips did not attend the sentencing, but his mother did and said she was not sure how her son would react to the sentencing.

"It's hard to say," Kirsten Phillips said. "Certainly they didn't get any hard time out of it. Sentences for this type of things are far too light, anyway."

We really got a kick out of this bit of naivete:

Judge Peter Doherty called the incident "liquor-fuelled stupidity," and called the convicted men "barbarous louts" who will be haunted by their crime for the rest of their lives.

Somehow, we doubt any of these guys are going to loose much sleep over this.