A higher court has tacked an extra 18 months onto the prison term of a man who abused his sa国际传媒渋ntimate partnersa国际传媒� after the Crown appealed a Surrey provincial court judgesa国际传媒檚 sentence.

David Welesley Somers was convicted in Surrey on Oct. 6, 2020 of 10 crimes involving repeated acts of violence against his partner and the judge sentenced him to eight years and nine months but reduced the aggregate sentence to four years and six months, less time served.

The Crown appealed that sentence, arguing it was sa国际传媒渄emonstrably unfitsa国际传媒� on grounds it failed to take into account the severity of Somersa国际传媒檚 crimes, which involved assault with a weapon, uttering a death threat, unlawful confinement, slapping the womansa国际传媒檚 face and choking her.

The court heard he held a knife to her wrist and threatened to cut off her hand.

The court also heard that by the time Somers was tried on these offences he already had 50 criminal convictions and spend most of his adult life sa国际传媒� he was 35 at the time of this trial sa国际传媒� going in and out of prison for robbery, assault, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm, and assaulting a peace officer.

sa国际传媒淗is parole had been revoked three times,sa国际传媒� noted Justice Susan Griffin, of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, in her delivered via videoconference. sa国际传媒淗is longest sentence was six years for the robbery and weapons offences.sa国际传媒�

The Crown prosecutor argued for a sentence of 13.5 years, reduced to nine or 10 for time served, while the defence argue for a sentence of 36 months and five days, less credit for time served, plus three years of probation.

sa国际传媒淲hen abuse occurs in the complainantsa国际传媒檚 own home and family environment, the complainantsa国际传媒檚 sense of personal security can be totally destroyed,sa国际传媒� Griffin noted in her reasons.

The Surrey judge in passing his aggregate sentence ordered that Somers serve two years concurrent to his other crimes on an attempt to obstruct justice conviction. Griffin changed this to an 18-month consecutive sentence.

sa国际传媒淚n my view, a fit aggregate sentence given the circumstances of the respondent and his offences would be six yearssa国际传媒� imprisonment, before credit for time served,sa国际传媒� Griffin decided.

Appeal Court Justices David Frankel and Christopher Grauer concurred.