Kelowna

Photo: Castanet Staff

A man convicted of assault with a weapon, after slashing an exotic dancer and choking her into unconsciousness, has been sentenced to two months in custody and 18 months of probation.

Steven Alexander McLaughlin – who is from the Yukon – met the Calgary woman on Facebook. They took a trip to Banff together and then decided on a two-week vacation to Kelowna, where the victim had lined up exotic dancing jobs in various strip clubs.

The court heard that one night while the victim was stripping in Rutland, McLaughlin got into a conflict with another patron at the establishment, only to see her talking to that same man at another club a few days later.

The couple then got into a heated exchange later that night inside McLaughlin’s travel trailer where the two were staying and conflicting reports showed the victim with a cut to her face and bruising on her neck, while McLaughlin instead called her the aggressor.

At one point while crown counsel was reading from a pre-sentence report, McLaughlin defiantly stood up in the prisoner’s box to argue what he felt was unfair treatment and facts directed at his prior lifestyle choices. Judge Anne Wallace suggested it was time he stop doing exactly what the reports say, blaming things on others by minimizing his owns actions.

The report went on to say McLaughlin was a moderate to high-risk to re-offend and suggested he seek anger-management counseling.

The crown asked for a higher end provisional sentence of at least 18 months, plus two or three years of probation.

McLaughlin, wearing an open collared black dress shirt and suit jacket wiped away tears and attempted to compose himself with a deep breath as Judge Wallace read her decision.

She admitted it was a difficult decision, especially since she had to take the Gladue report into account because of McLaughlin’s First Nations heritage.

In the end she sentenced him to six months in custody, plus 30 days for a breach of probation when McLaughlin attempted the call the victim in November. With five months of time already served, the sentence became two months in custody along with a no contact order with the victim, no anabolic steroids and no weapons -- except for the purposes of hunting to feed his family.