Man who got new trial for alleged attack of doctor is off the hook

Photo: Castanet Staff

Gregory Nield outside Penticton courts in 2017.

A man who was granted a new trial in the alleged violent beating of a psychiatrist at Penticton Regional Hospital is no longer going back to court at all.

The BC prosecution service made the decision this week to stay the charges against Gregory Nield relating to the 2014 incident.

In an email to Castanet, communication counsel Dan McLaughlin said “further information” was received by the prosecutor, who then concluded “the charge approval standard could no longer be met.”
That standard includes a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, that a prosecution is required in the public interest.

Nield was previously found guilty of assaulting Dr. Rajeev Sheoran and sentenced to 30 months probation in September 2017.

An appeals court overturned the decision in January 2019 and ordered a new trial, finding that the first trial had erred on evidence as to Nield’s mental state at the time.

At trial, Nield said he had been self-medicating with magic mushrooms to ease severe headaches for nearly a month. Nield’s parents testified to his apparent lapsed mental state when they had visited him at the hospital prior to the assault.