Three-year max sentence for teen in group home attacks

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This article was published 14/08/2019 (1714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 15-year-old girl has been sentenced to a maximum term of three years in custody, after she slashed a Winnipeg group home worker’s neck open with a utility knife.

The teen, who had been charged with attempted murder and had also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in connection to a related attack on a second group home worker, is among a small number of offenders serving sentences under an Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision order.

The IRCS program allows participants access to one-on-one counselling, occupational therapy, tutoring, and other specialized services.

Crown attorney Melissa Carlson and defence lawyer Hillarie Tasche jointly recommended the girl be admitted to the program, intended for the most troubled of young offenders.

“In order to achieve the best chance of rehabilitation… we are both recommending a full three-year period going forward to give her the full benefit of the resources attached (to an IRCS sentence),” Carlson told provincial court Judge Ryan Rolston.

The attack occurred Nov. 16, 2018, the same day the girl moved into the group home.

Court heard she had been talking to her father on a phone. She handed the receiver to a male group home worker, then pulled his head back from behind and slashed his neck with a utility knife.

“It was basically from end to end,” Carlson said in court Wednesday. “Thankfully, it wasn’t fatal, because it really could have been.”

The man ran to another room to activate a distress alarm, then returned to the girl, who was attacking a female staff member, slashing her on the cheek, hand and arm. The man disarmed the girl and the two workers held her to the floor until police arrived.

“It was a terrifying situation,” Carlson said. “I don’t know if I can choose a word that would really invoke the fear the two victims experienced.”

The attack came with no warning, the female victim said in a written statement provided to court.

“I’ve worked with children who have issues, but I never had to deal with anything like this before,” the woman wrote. “There was no way to prepare for what happened. The atmosphere seemed calm.”

The woman has yet to return to work, and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Both victims said they forgive the girl.

“I pray that she finds it within herself to forgive herself and to heal from whatever caused her to do this,” the woman wrote.

Court heard the girl has a troubled family history and suffers from a series of mental health and substance abuse issues. Two weeks prior to the attack, she had stopped taking medication for a depressive disorder.

“There is a personal history of extreme trauma,” Carlson said. “There are a lot of people who have let her down in her life, and that is putting it mildly.”

Tasche said the girl showed immediate remorse when interviewed by police.

“She showed incredible concern for the victims (and) wanted more than anything to know they were OK,” Tasche said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca