Vancouver B.C. in the news - Brain Injury
Saturday, July 24th, 2010.
Court hears attacker said pub patron ‘deserved’ devastating sucker-punch.
An unprovoked assault on Ritch Dowrey left the 62-year-old father with a “catastrophic” brain injury that means he will need lifelong assistance, Vancouver Provincial Court heard Wednesday morning. Vancouver resident Shawn Woodward has been accused of aggravated assault for hitting Dowrey on March 13, 2009, at the Fountainhead Pub on Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End.
The accused allegedly told witnesses that he sucker-punched Dowrey because “he’s a faggot — he deserved it.” Dowrey, the father of two grown children and well-known in football circles as a huge B.C. Lions fan, now lives at the Connect care home in Langley. In her opening statement, Crown Counsel Jacinta Lawton painted a picture of devastating consequences from that evening’s assault.
Dowrey will never be able to live independently again as a result of the brain injury, and requires assistance with daily activities such as feeding and dressing, said Lawton, citing uncontested medical reports. He also needs a walker to walk and a wheelchair to go further distances, and requires verbal prompting for every action, except eating, she said.
Dowrey has no memory of the assault and as such, will not be testifying to that evening’s events. He is able to recognize his family members, many of whom packed the courtroom Wednesday, including his daughter and brother. Dowrey was not present.
Lawton said there is no dispute over the identity of the accused, the date, time and location of the incident and the fact that Woodward applied force to Dowrey. What is at issue are the events leading up to the blow and whether Woodward acted in self defence, she said.
Woodward, 35 at the time of arrest last year, appeared in court neatly dressed in a black dress shirt and dress pants. The first Crown witness to be called to the stand, Fountainhead Pub waitress, Kristi McNicholl, testified that Dowrey was a regular at the bar. That night, McNicholl said she saw Dowrey by the pool table and was about to take a shot when Woodward, who was standing on the other side of the table, walked over and punched Dowrey in the jaw and cheek, the court heard. She testified that no words were exchanged between the two men prior to the punch.
McNicholl said she immediately knew that Dowrey was rendered unconscious because he dropped his cue and fell straight backwards. “It was dead weight falling,” McNicholl said in court. “I heard the back of Ritchie’s head hit the tile [floor] at the front entrance. It was loud, it was like a pop.” McNicholl, 23, testified that she then saw Woodward step over Dowrey’s body and calmly walk out the front door of the pub.
Lawton said medical reports showed the blow led to a fractured skull and bleeding in Dowrey’s brain. Lindsay Wincherauk, 50, an acquaintance of Dowrey’s and fellow regular at the Fountainhead Pub, testified Wednesday that he too saw Woodward knock Dowrey down with a single punch. Wincherauk said he then followed the accused outside, confronted Woodward on Davie Street and asked him “why he did it.” “[Woodward] said, ‘He’s a faggot, he deserved it. The faggot touched me, I’m not a faggot,’” Wincherauk testified.
Scott Larin, head bartender at the Fountainhead pub, told the court he was with Wincherauk at the time of the confrontation. Larin gave similar testimony to Wincherauk’s, recounting that when Woodward was asked “why he did it,” he responded by saying “[Dowrey] deserved it.”
Larin told the court that the Fountainhead Pub is known as a neighbourhood joint where everyone’s welcome — “gay or straight.” The majority of its patrons on Fridays are members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community, he said. At the time, the assault infuriated Vancouver’s gay community, who viewed it as a hate crime. That designation has not been proven in court.
Lawton said a hate-crime designation is only considered at the time of sentencing — if there is a conviction.
If a case is considered a hate crime, the judge would take that as an aggravating factor in handing out the sentence.
Source: Lena Sin, The Province 22 July 2010