In a civil ruling, a B.C. Supreme Courtroom decide discovered that the assault by Ralph Mackay Fraser was a “profoundly painful, upsetting and life-changing incident,” which left the safety guard, then 21, with lifelong accidents.
“This was, briefly, a totally disgraceful incident. If the defendant is an individual of any conscience, he can be immobilized by disgrace each time he thinks of it,” said Justice Robin Baird within the March 2021 ruling.
Fraser, who pleaded responsible to assault inflicting bodily hurt in 2008 and obtained a conditional discharge, was in his 50s when he dedicated the offence.
Fraser was being escorted out of an occasion on the Pan Pacific lodge in Vancouver on Feb. 17, 2008, by 21-year-old safety guard Andrew Thompson when he punched him within the face, completely damaging the bony construction round Thompson’s left eye.
The ruling states that Fraser had beforehand been concerned in a scuffle on the lodge bar after ingesting an excessive amount of, and employees known as safety to take away him. He had been attending an occasion with a lot of folks, together with the headmaster of Shawnigan Lake College.
Lifelong accidents and profession desires dashed
The assault left Thompson incapacitated for weeks and in want of emergency facial surgical procedure, in line with the ruling.
Greater than a decade later, he lives with metallic gear fused into his facial bones that causes him vital ache and discomfort when it’s chilly outdoors and a screw immediately beneath his left eye that’s painful to the contact.
In his ruling, Baird said that Fraser was handled “extraordinarily leniently” for an offence that’s punishable by a most of 10 years imprisonment.
“I’d emphasize that [Andrew Thompson] was barely older than the scholars, most of them full-time boarders, who’re dedicated by their mother and father to the defendant’s care each day of the college 12 months,” stated the decide.
“I’m amazed that he was not fired from his employment.”
In line with B.C.’s Trainer Regulation Department, Fraser nonetheless holds a legitimate certificates of qualification and was solely reprimanded for the assault in 2009 after admitting to “conduct unbecoming a member of the School.”
Thompson, whose desires of turning into an RCMP officer had been scrapped by the sucker punch, was awarded $60,000 in compensation for damages and $166,000 for his lack of revenue incomes capability.
