Canadian
man gets four-year sentence in antigay attack

A Canadian man has been sent to prison after he attacked a stranger with a beer bottle because he thought the man was gay, the Calgary Herald reported Saturday. Victim Sebastien Sauvageau lost an eye as a result of the incident. The judge sentenced Taha Ismail Amr to four years in prison. "The only motivation for the assault appears to be the accused's perception that the victim was a homosexual and the fact that he is of French nationality," Semenuk wrote. Amr had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, the newspaper reported. Prosecutors told the court that incident, on the night of November 1, 2003, started after Sauvageau went to use the restroom at a nightclub. He was wearing a skintight Halloween costume, and Amr approached and began making antigay comments, including calling him "French fag," the newspaper reported. When Sauvageau turned around, Amr struck him twice across the face with the beer bottle. The first strike broke the bottle and the second caused several lacerations to the victim's right eye, puncturing his eyeball, the Herald reported. A witness found a bloody Sauvageau and noticed that Amr had fled the bar. Sauvageau subsequently identified Amr through a police photo lineup. The assailant confessed to an undercover police officer in a cell, still referring to the victim as "a fag," according to the newspaper. The judge said the assault was aggravated because Amr used a weapon, which was even more dangerous on the "gratuitous" second blow. "Given that the accused struck the victim twice with the weapon in the same area of the victim's body, the accused must have deliberately intended to wound the victim," the judge said. "The accused's assault was unprovoked...the victim was unarmed...the accused ignored the victim's attempts to verbally defuse the situation." (Advocate.com)