Man admits attacks linked to Justice Institute
VANCOUVER — Families with links to a British Columbia justice training centre were among the targets in the firebombings and shootings of their homes and vehicles by a man who has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the attacks, the Crown told a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Vincent Cheung, 43, of Langley, pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to 18 of 23 counts stemming from the attacks between April 2011 and January 2012.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown lawyer Joe Bellows said the man targeted 15 families throughout the Lower Mainland after tracking down their homes with information obtained from their licence plates.
All the victims — including a corrections officer and members of a church group — had a member of their family park at the British Columbia Justice Institute, which offers training for people working in public safety including police officers and firefighters, he said.
Bellows said the Crown and defence will jointly ask for sentencing in the range of 10 to 15 years in prison.
He said nine witness impact statements today will shed light on what the families endured.
“A lot of emotional trauma, a lot of financial difficulties,” he said outside court. “They were very traumatized. Especially those who were victimized more than once.”
Court heard that Cheung hired and directed others, and might have personally participated in the attacks. Most victims were at home and several were sleeping, but nobody was injured or killed, said Bellows.
The fact that no one was hurt was not the result of careful planning, but rather “simply dumb luck,” Bellows told the court.
Video footage played in court showed a firebombing at the home of West Vancouver’s former police chief. Bellows said in one case, a fire was set to the front and back entrances of the home of an elderly woman.
Police arrested Cheung last September, after four years of piecing together evidence.
Another man facing a single charge in the case pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of arson. A sentencing hearing for Thurman Taffe of Burnaby is scheduled next month.