A man who claimed he was protecting his girlfriend from sexual assault when he beat another man with a golf club lost an appeal in B.C. Supreme Court recently.
Antonio Duarte was convicted of assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon after an incident in New Westminster in April 2012.
During the original trial, Duarte testified that he had received a telephone call from his girlfriend, who told him, “They’re coming to rape me.”
He said he had immediately driven to her New West residence and entered through an unlocked door.
Once inside, he said he had grabbed a golf club and gone upstairs, where he said he saw his girlfriend and another person, Jason Woolgar on top of her under the covers and in bed.
Woolgar, however, testified that he had been fully dressed and seated at the side of the bed and that there had been no physical interaction between him and Duarte’s girlfriend but that Duarte had nonetheless picked up a golf club and begun hitting him repeatedly at his legs and feet with enough forced to break the putter.
Woolgar had bled profusely, and his left foot required 15 stitches, according to evidence presented in court.
Duarte was found guilty of assault on Aug. 28, 2014, with the trial judge, Shehni Dossa, rejecting his plea of self-defence.
“Even if I find from the perception of the accused that there might have been some sexual activity between the complainant and (Duarte’s girlfriend), I find that the accused’s belief that there was an assault happening to be objectively unreasonable,” she stated in her ruling.
Dossa went on to say that, even if Duarte’s intention had been to stop his girlfriend from being assaulted, the force used was “far more than necessary.”
Duarte appealed the decision, but his appeal was dismissed by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Maisonville last month.
“Having reviewed in detail the whole of the reasons, I consider that the trial judge demonstrated an awareness of the task facing her and that she did not error in completing that task,” Maisonville stated in her July 22 decision.
