A repeat offender has had his latest sentence cut in half by the British Columbia Court of Appeal.David Murtagh was originally slated to spend 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to a slew of crimes against his partner, but will now only stay behind bars for 30 months.According to the Vancouver Sun, Murtagh was charged with and admitted to 17 offences, among them slashing the tires of his partner's car and preventing her from leaving the women's shelter where she lived, bashing the hood with a screwdriver, and threatening to wreck her possessions if she refused to stay with him. He proceeded to assault and choke the woman, whose name was not released, in front of her teenage daughter, and dragged her away screaming when she went to get help from a neighbour.At his trial, the defence and prosecution both recommended a 30 month sentence, however the judge opted to double that, arguing that, among other things, he should not serve concurrent sentences for crimes that were not related.Unhappy with the ruling, Murtagh asked the Court of Appeal to take a look, and after some deliberation, Chief Justice Leonard Marchand agreed to reduce the sentence. In his decision, agreed to by fellow Justices Patrice Abrioux and Peter Voith, he argued that the reduction "will not cause reasonable and informed persons to lose confidence in our justice system," and that not enough attention had been placed on the fact that Murtagh hails from the Siksika First Nation."His life has been marred by many of the all-too-common direct and indirect adverse effects of Canada’s colonial and post-colonial assimilationist policies," Marchand lamented, pointing out that Murtagh got into alcohol at age 10, began using marijuana by 12 or 13 and crack cocaine a few years later, then started doing meth at 35.Murtagh's prior convictions include 52 property crimes, 25 for breaching court orders of obstructing justice, eight violent offences, and one drug offence.
