A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to five years in prison for randomly attacking an elderly woman on the street, leaving her with bone fractures and what her family calls a “complete loss of independence.” Court heard Victoria Comeau, then 83, was walking alone with her walker on William Avenue toward a grocery store in February 2025 when Justin Getty, now 28, approached her from behind, punched her and pushed her to the ground. Once she was down, Getty began kicking and swearing at her, court heard. He then picked up her walker and was about to bring it down on top of her when passersby intervened and stopped him. Provincial court Judge Michelle Bright called it a “random, brazen and unprovoked attack” during a sentencing hearing Wednesday. “One can only imagine the potential outcome had the accused been allowed to continue the assault unimpeded,” she said. Comeau spent three months in hospital and sustained multiple pelvic fractures in the attack. Court heard a medical team determined she was not a suitable candidate for surgery to repair the injuries, due to her age and frailty, and that she can no longer walk without assistance, even in her own home. Bright said that before the attack, Comeau—who had lived for many years in the neighbourhood where she was assaulted—felt like she knew people on the street and was never scared to be out on her own. Now, the judge said, “She feels terrified to leave the confines of her home.” “Suffice to say, the impact on Ms. Comeau and her family by extension has been significant. Not only in relation to the physical injuries she suffered, but also on her independence and sense of safety,” Bright told court. Following the attack, Getty returned home to a supportive housing facility for people with mental health issues and told a staff member he had “assaulted an old lady and stomped on her.” A manager at the facility contacted the Winnipeg Police Service and provided a description of what he’d been wearing, court heard — a description that ultimately matched the assailant captured on nearby video footage. Getty was arrested a week later and taken to police headquarters for an interview. Court heard he displayed behaviour suggesting he was experiencing a mental health episode, including taking his clothes off, telling police there were spiders in his body, and saying he thought he was “being eaten alive by O.J. Simpson.” He was admitted to a mental health unit at Health Sciences Centre and diagnosed that March with schizophrenia and stimulant use disorder, court heard. He has been in custody since May 2025 at Headingley Correctional Institution and continues to receive psychiatric care and medication. ‘Very difficult upbringing’ Getty, who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, has lived in Winnipeg his entire life and had a “very difficult upbringing,” court heard. He was apprehended from his mother’s care at age five due to her substance abuse issues and physically violent relationships, Bright said. He reported witnessing his mother’s boyfriends being physically violent toward her, and said he was sexually abused as a child by the father of one of his siblings. After being apprehended, court heard he went through foster homes and group homes. He maintains a relationship with his grandfather, who provided a letter of support describing him as a “loveable young man” and spoke of the difficulties he’d faced in recent years following his mother’s death from a drug overdose in 2020. Bright said his criminal record includes convictions for mischief and assault and that he had a “lengthy history” of substance abuse, having heavily used methamphetamine since age 16 or 17. He was also a heroin and fentanyl user, Bright said, and he was unable to estimate his longest period of sobriety. Between 2021 and 2025, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital on five occasions. However, according to an assessment report, doctors concluded he could appreciate the nature and quality of his acts. While Bright found there was a link between Getty’s mental illness and his offending, she raised concerns about comments he made about the attack—including telling a pre-sentence report writer that he didn’t care about what happened to Comeau. Court heard that during several interviews with psychiatrists, Getty gave conflicting accounts of the attack; at one point, he claimed he had been hearing voices, and at another time, he said it was to vent his anger after he had been assaulted. Getty had previously expressed remorse for the incident and promised not to assault anyone ever again during a sentencing hearing last March — but Bright said she rejected it. “I find it difficult to accept the accused’s in-court expressions of those feelings and his promises to change his behaviour based on his well-documented history of expressing the opposite and his insistence that what he did was not a big deal,” Bright said. She said Getty’s risk of reoffending is “very high.” Bright imposed the five-year sentence, which was the term sought by Crown prosecutors.
