BY KEITH LACEY
A Sudbury man who hit his common-law wife and mother of his four children in the jaw with a hammer after a drunken argument will have to spend
another three months in jail on top of two months heÂ?s already spent in custody.
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He will also not be able to have any contact with his wife during two years of probation after heÂ?s out of custody.
Duane Spearman, 42, pleaded guilty Wednesday to assault with a weapon, assaulting a second woman and breaching numerous court orders to not communicate with his common-law wife.
Court heard Spearman ignored court orders to not contact his wife after his arrest for assaulting her with a hammer last September. He continued to
phone her from the Sudbury District Jail.
After being released on bail, Spearman was ordered not to have any contact with his wife and not consume alcohol.
One month later on Nov. 26, Spearman broke both conditions by taking his wife to a pool tournament and consuming alcohol, said Howe.
When they returned home, an argument ensued and Spearman again lost his temper, kicked at the fridge and turned over all kinds of furniture.
Spearman went next door to confront a female neighbour who had accompanied him and his wife to the pool tournament, made accusations and assaulted the neighbour by poking his finger into her chest, causing a welt, said the assistant Crown attorney Fran Howe.
Police were called and Spearman was arrested for assault and breaching his bail order.
While in custody, Spearman again ignored the court order to not associate with his wife by phoning her repeatedly during consecutive days in early December, said Howe.
Defence counsel Charles Conroy said Spearman has no record of violence.
Spearman had consumed a lot of alcohol and had mixed booze with prescription pills before the incident last September. He has also suffered from emotional problems in the past, he said.
Spearman and his wife were together for 20 years in eastern Canada and they raised four children together before splitting up. She moved to the Sudbury area and they recently got back together, said Conroy.
Justice Guy Mahaffy told the court he was Â?very uncomfortableÂ? with the sentence of time served for the vicious hammer attack, but said he had little choice but to accept it after another judge put his stamp of approval on it.
However, he does have jurisdiction over the sentence on the repeated phone calls and the proposal for another 30 days in jail isnÂ?t sufficient, he said.
Spearman Â?obviously doesnÂ?t feel the law applies to himÂ? and it happens all too often that people accused of domestic violence get a light sentence and return to continue to abuse their partners, he said.
He warned Spearman to stay away from his wife for the full two years and said the appropriate sentence for the phone calls was another 90 days in jail.
Imposing a sentence of only 30 days would be contrary to the public interest and would bring the administration of justice into disrepute, said
Mahaffy.
