BY KEITH LACEY
A teenager who indulged in vigilante justice and ended up getting stabbed in the process, was sentenced to six months of house arrest earlier this week.
Paul Simon, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a weapon. He attacked another teenager, who he felt was being aggressive towards his sister, with a baseball bat on Oct. 30, 2003.
Michael Brown, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of assault and was given a conditional discharge.
Simon was upset when another teenager ?became boorish toward his younger sister...She came home crying one day...and he decided to take things into his own hands,? said Simon?s defence counsel Richard Huneault.
Assistant Crown attorney Karen Lische said Simon, Brown and a group of friends approached the victim when he got off a school bus in Minnow Lake.
Following the incident, Simon was in hospital with a puncture wound to his chest and was not co-operative with police, said Lische.
Simon suffered a collapsed lung but is expected to make a full recovery.
The police investigation revealed the victim got off the bus ?and was jumped? by Simon and numerous other young males, said Lische.
Other witnesses saw the victim being chased in a car with one male carrying a baseball bat, said Lische.
The complainant ?had ongoing problems? with Simon before this incident, said Lische.
Brown told police in a statement, he and Simon had planned to confront the young man, said Lische.
Huneault admitted Simon had planned to get into a fight; however, things changed when the victim produced a knife after he got off the bus.
Simon only grabbed the baseball bat after seeing the knife. He challenged the young man to hand-to-hand combat if he dropped the knife, he said.
The complainant lunged at Simon with the knife. Simon hit back with the baseball bat only after being stabbed, his defence lawyer said.
Simon ?is quite gifted in the area of mechanics? and works full-time. He has only one other conviction for a minor offence, said Huneault.
Justice William Fitzgerald told Simon, ?this is a very serious and troubling situation...it shouldn?t be, can?t be and won?t be tolerated.?
People who try and take the law into their own hands will have their freedom taken away, he said.
?You don?t indulge in behaviour like this, whether or not you think you have a good reason,? said the veteran judge.
However, considering Simon has no previous record for violence, a six-month sentence to be served in the community is an appropriate punishment,
he said.
Fitzgerald banned Simon from possessing weapons for two years and ordered him to provide a blood sample for a national DNA data bank.
Brown?s lawyer, Nathalie Boivin, said her client has no previous criminal record, did not know the victim, and played a very minor role in the assault.
Brown got a conditional discharge. If he stays out of trouble for nine months, he will not have any criminal record.
