A Newfoundland woman who was beaten by her ex-boyfriend says a judge’s decision to grant a discharge sends a clear message to attackers that “you can do whatever you want as long as you’re going to university at some point.”
Lancelot Saunders, 20, pleaded guilty to assaulting 19-year-old Aden Savoie. He later bragged about the attack on his Instagram account.
A judge decided to issue an absolute discharge -- effectively scrapping any consequences -- after a lawyer for Saunders said his client planned to attend Memorial University.
The young man will not have a criminal record or face any conditions. There are no restrictions forcing him to stay away from Savoie or to contact her.
The case is being appealed.
Savoie said the decision shows that the judge had more compassion for her attacker than for her.
“What’s the point of a law if you can just break it because you have plans for the future?” Savoie told NTV on Tuesday.
“It sends a message to every woman who has been abused or hurt by someone that she has loved that if he hurts her, he can get away with it. It’s not right.”
According to an agreed upon statement of facts, Saunders pulled Savoie’s hair, hit her with a coat hanger and left her bruised.
When Savoie learned that her attacker pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, she thought he would be on probation.
“We took that as a win. We were like, this is the best we’re going to get,” she said.
She later heard back from a victim’s services representative, who delivered news of Saunders’ discharge.
“(The judge) didn’t think about my wellbeing at all,” she said.
The province’s justice minister said earlier that there’s nothing the government can do about the decision. He said that, as a father, he finds the incident “unacceptable” but that the judiciary acts independently.
“It’s not the first time that we’ve seen a decision that certainly struck a chord with the public or upset the public . . . I’m not ignorant to what people are saying out there, but I had to be careful in my role as an attorney general,” said Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Minister Andrew Parsons.
With a report from NTV
