Convicted in assault cases

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

A man has been sentenced to four months house arrest followed by a year's probation for assault.

The man was convicted of two assault charges and one other charge, following a pair of incidents in 2014.

In the first incident, the man, with his dog, approached two children at a beach and offered to let the children hold the dog in their laps. The children were nine and 11 years old at the time.

In an effort to not let the dog go, the man kept a hold of the dog while it sat in their laps, touching the children's genitals as a result.

After some time, the first child passed the dog to the second.

As the dog squirmed, so did the man's hand, while the children displayed discomfort with the situation.

Eventually, one child's mother approached the man and pulled the dog off of the second child.

As the mother walked away with the children, what happened was explained to her.

When she returned to the area, people told her the man drove off in a BMW. She got into her own car and followed well enough to get a description and licence plate.

The second incident occurred at a Penticton store, where police responded to a disturbance.

Officers were told the man dropped his keys and while bending down to pick them up, took an upskirt photo of the clerk.

His defence lawyer told court the man was in the middle of a nervous breakdown at the time, and left his job soon thereafter. He had been self-medicating depression with drugs and alcohol and wasn't thinking straight.

He had been admitted to a mental health centre in July 2014. He also spent 30 days in a psych ward in Vancouver near the end of that year, and has since begun attending drug and alcohol counselling.

The man returned to work and has been sober since his discharge, according to his lawyer.