Alleged stabbing victim allowed to testify via video in jail assault

Security concerns have prompted a judge to allow one of two men allegedly stabbed by another inmate at the Okanagan Correctional Centre to testify by video at a preliminary inquiry.

Afshin Maleki Ighani, 45, is set to have a two-day preliminary inquiry in Penticton starting April 24 to determine if two counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of assault causing bodily harm have enough evidence behind them to go to trial in B.C. Supreme Court.

Judge Greg Koturbash granted the application for video testimony Tuesday after hearing previously from the Crown about logistical problems sheriffs would have at the cramped Penticton courthouse ensuring the safety of the three men involved, all of whom are incarcerated.

One of the alleged victims of the September 2017 incident is David James McHale, 70, who is serving time after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual interference in Kelowna in April 2017.

McHale has filed a lawsuit against the B.C. government claiming a guard is partly responsible for the attack because the guard failed to lock a gate on the protective custody unit, where the stabbings are said to have occurred.

Ighani is also accused of stabbing Peter Beckett in the same incident. Beckett was found guilty of killing his wife after a trial in September 2017 in Kelowna.

Separate charges against Ighani, including kidnapping, assault and firearms charges related to an alleged crime spree last year, are set to go to trial June 4 in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton.

Ighani’s lengthy criminal record resulted in him twice being ordered deported from Canada.

However, he successfully appealed that order in 2002, and Canada did not send him back to his native Iran to face the death penalty in 2007, a source previously told the Penticton Herald.