Pubdate: Wed, 17 Oct 2001
Source: Duncan News Leader (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Duncan News Leader
Contact:  http://www.duncannewsleader.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1314
Author: Steven Addison

GUILTY KIDNAPPERS AVOID JAIL SENTENCE

Two men who kidnapped and beat a drug dealer with a metal pipe and other 
objects avoided jail time this week, thanks in large part to their early 
guilty pleas and their clean criminal past.

Aaron Forrest, 26, and Matthew Finnegan, 23, were each given six month 
conditional sentences with strict conditions attached, after they pleaded 
guilty to unlawful confinement and assault with a weapon.

Provincial Court Judge Michael Hubbard ordered the men to complete 160 
hours of community work service before March 1, to abstain from drugs and 
alcohol and to obey a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Finnegan was also ordered to wear an electronic-monitoring bracelet.

The men were among a group of seven arrested Feb. 20 and charged with the 
abduction and beating of Chuck Spence, a drug dealer with a lengthy 
criminal record.

Speaking at their sentencing hearing Tuesday, Crown counsel Brad Tomlin 
said a botched drug deal sparked the assault.

Spence reportedly accepted money from a friend of the convicts in exchange 
for the drug ecstasy, but he gave them a bogus drug instead.

"As near as we can tell...it was probably something like Tylenol-3 but it 
doesn't appear to be (an illegal) drug at all," Tomlin told the court. 
After repeated attempts to get the money back, the attackers plucked Spence 
from outside a residence on Alexander Street, beat him with a pipe and 
kicked and punched him.

Tomlin said the attackers also brandished a meat clever and stuffed a bar 
of soap inside a sock and used it to whip the victim. Spence was 
blindfolded at one point then driven out to Somenos Road and beaten some more.

None of the injuries caused serious bodily harm, said Tomlin, who believes 
the attackers did not originally intend to go as far as they did in the 
beating.

"I don't think at the beginning of this anyone thought it was going to get 
as carried away as it did," he told the court.

Forrest, a former student at Shawnigan Lake School and avid rugby player, 
said he feels terrible about the assault, which he called a stupid mistake. 
"I am extremely remorseful. It was a really dumb thing for me to do and I 
would like to get on with my life," he said.

Of the seven people arrested for the crime, only Finnegan and Forrest 
pleaded guilty. Charges were eventually dropped against one female and the 
three others are still before the courts.
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MAP posted-by: Beth