A West Vancouver businessman who held a gun to his wife's head while telling her "Let's die together," will serve an additional seven months in jail, a North Vancouver judge has decided.
The 42 year-old man has already served nine months in jail since police arrested him Feb. 23 following the violent assault at the couple's British Properties home.
During the assault, the man dragged his wife into a basement room described by Crown prosecutor Lori Ashton as "the gun room" where he kept a "significant number of guns and ammunition."
According to information in a judge's decision to deny the man bail earlier this year, he legally possessed 16 long guns and 12 pistols at the time of the assault.
After threatening to kill her, the man used the butt end of a rifle to hit his wife in the back of the head, knocking her to the floor semi-conscious and bleeding.
Authorities were eventually summoned after the couple's 10 year-old daughter called 9-1-1. The man was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to four charges, including assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, threatening death and careless storage of a firearm.
Under a publication ban protecting the identities of his former wife and daughter, the man cannot be named. The couple has since divorced.
According to information presented in court, the attack - described by a judge earlier this year as "horrifying and sadistic" - started after the family attended a Chinese New Year's party in West Vancouver.
By about 10:30 p.m. that night, the man was drunk and told his wife he wanted to leave the party.
Once parked inside the garage at their home, the man ordered his daughter into the house, then hit his wife twice in the face. Once outside the car, he hit her again in the face, leaving her with a bleeding black eye.
He then pulled her into the "gun room," in the basement, where he picked up a long gun and put it to his wife's head.
Ashton said while the attack was going on, the couple's daughter tried to dial 9-1-1 but misdialed, hitting 9-9-1 several times before giving up.
Alarmed by what she heard, the girl ignored her father's warning to stay away and went downstairs where she saw her mother lying face down on the carpet. Her father then told the girl to call 9-1-1. Speaking in the man's defence, lawyer Jeff Campbell said the man came to Canada from China, where he'd been a partner in a mining business, in 2010. The man has a previous head injury and a long history of alcohol abuse.
Campbell said his client has already suffered serious consequences for the attack, including losing all contact with his daughter and much of his financial savings.
As a permanent resident, but not a citizen of Canada, the man will also likely face deportation proceedings once he is released from jail.
Judge John Milne handed the man a sentence of 18 months jail, with credit for time served. He will also be put on probation for two years, with conditions banning him from consumption of alcohol and ordering him to stay away from his daughter and former wife except as allowed through family court orders.
