Photo: BC Gov Flickr

An inmate at the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver has had another 30 days tacked on to his sentence for attacking one of the guards.

Nathan Durant, 22, pleaded guilty Friday in Penticton court to assaulting a corrections officer on Feb. 11, as that guard was coming to fetch him from his cell for yard time.

Durant threw kicks and punches at the officer, who pressed his panic button alerting other guards who rushed to the scene with pepper spray.

Crown prosecutor Kurt Froehlich said the corrections officer missed two days of work with injuries due to the assault, but argued “the absence of serious injury should not undermine the seriousness of the offence, it's only because the officer was able to block the blows that he isn’t seriously injured.”

Froehlich asked for a 4-6 month sentence, stating corrections officers need to be protected on the job, adding the assault was completely unprovoked.

Defence lawyer Jordan Watt argued his client had already been punished for the assault with 40 days in solitary confinement, and added the authorities dragged their feet on having charges laid.

Despite the assault taking place in February, charges were not approved until July 30, something Durant didn’t even learn about until Aug. 7 — a week before he was set to be released from his previous sentence.

Durant was, in fact, sentenced in May for the term he was previously serving and would have pleaded guilty to the attack on the guard at that time had been been charged.

“It’s difficult to understand how an offense that occurred on Feb. 11 could linger until an information is sworn July 30, which just happens to correspond to within two weeks of his planned release date,” Judge Michelle Daneliuk said, calling it an “absolute failure in the system to deal with the matter in a timely fashion.”

She also agreed to take Durant’s time in solitary into consideration, stating 40-plus days in segregation “flies in the face” of recent Supreme Court decisions limiting time inmates can spend segregated.

The court also heard that Durant was off his two antipsychotics when the attack on the guard took place. Durant showed remorse, and apologized for the incident.

“During my stay at OCC, [victim] was one of the nicer guys. He was compassionate in the way he treated inmates and a friendlier guard," Durant said. "Although inmates usually don’t talk to guards, he was easy to talk to when you had to, and I feel very sorry and would like to apologize to him."

After the credit for the five extra days of time he’s already served, Durant will be released in 25 days.