Gang member faces prison time for part in vicious assault on woman

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/01/2015 (3365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former gang member has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for taking part in a vicious assault against a woman which included cutting off her pony tail and choking her with it.

Justice Sadie Bond, of Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, said the brutal nature of the crime, which Shane Sumner was part of with another member of the Manitoba Warriors, convinced her that Sumner needed more prison time than the 20 months he has already served in custody since being arrested.

“She (the victim) suffered a terrible vicious beating at the hands of two men,” Bond said today.

Bond said Sumner’s total sentence would be reduced by the time he has already served meaning he will be in custody another 22 months.

Court was told the Sumner, and another man who was earlier imprisoned for four years for the assault, assaulted and prevented a 20-year-old woman from leaving a West End apartment suite for hours on March 16, 2013.

Crown attorney Libby Standil said the incident was sparked by Sumner and the other man, who were members of the Manitoba Warriors, being told the woman was affiliated with the rival Indian Posse gang.

Standil said the violence included the other man cutting off the woman’s pony tail with a kitchen knife and while using it to choke her, Sumner punched her in the face.

The Crown said both men punched and kicked the woman, leaving bruises all over her body, but no broken bones. She said the incident only ended when another person in the suite secretly phoned police.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca