Man pleads guilty to attacking octogenarian

Video of a Windsor man’s unprovoked attack on an 83-year-old woman is so graphically violent, an Ontario court judge Thursday refused to show it in open court.

Justice Lloyd Dean worried aloud that court staff and members of the public in the courtroom will be psychologically scarred after viewing footage of the Sept. 28, 2016, incident.

“I have to watch it,” Dean said. But others, he decided, should be spared.

Richard Phillip Pillar, 29, pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated assault for the random act of violence. Bound at the time of the incident by two separate court orders prohibiting him from possessing weapons, Pillar also pleaded guilty Thursday to breach of probation.

According to facts read into the court record Thursday by assistant Crown attorney Bryan Pillon, the elderly woman was walking on Ottawa Street on her way to the bank about 11 a.m. Pillar grabbed her around the neck from behind and knocked her to the ground. As he bent over her, Pillar held the

woman’s head with one hand and repeatedly stabbed her in the right eye with the other. The knife he used had a six inch blade.

Pillar and the woman were strangers. He did not attempt to rob her. Pillar dropped the knife on the sidewalk and ran away. He stripped as he ran from the scene, his grey shirt and plaid vest discovered in a parking lot on Ottawa Street between Pierre and Hall avenues. Police also found a pair of jeans on Pierre Avenue they believe Pillar hurriedly peeled off and threw under a parked car.

Pillar’s victim suffered a severed muscle in her right eye, a broken orbital bone and puncture wounds to her forehead. Her eye was sliced open from the bridge of her nose to her right temple.

The woman has permanent damage to her eye. Her eye doesn’t move up and down and she has double vision, court heard.

It was not the first time Pillar had attacked someone. In April 2016, he was convicted of assault, mischief and breach of probation. In September 2014, he was convicted of assault causing bodily harm and another breach.

Pillar is currently before the courts on another assault that allegedly occurred while he was housed in the mental-health unit of the South West Detention Centre, Windsor’s new jail. Pillar is charged with assault causing bodily harm for allegedly attacking a male corrections officer.

That charge is the subject of a separate court proceeding.

Pillar appeared in court Thursday gazing straight ahead. He sat in the prisoner’s box, his hands resting on his spread knees. At times Pillar closed his eyes for prolonged periods as if meditating.

His father, sitting in the front row of the public gallery, stared at Pillar. Pillar did not return the gaze.

Pillon argued Pillar should be made to watch the video of his attack in open court. He and others need to appreciate the brutality of his offence.

“Words don’t always paint a picture as vividly as they should be painted,” Pillon said.

“It’s horrific, It’s disturbing. It’s shocking.”

Pillon said the victim’s two sons and daughter-in-law, who were present in the courtroom, had already been warned about the violent nature of the video.

But the judge balked at the need to show it. “I don’t see the legal purpose,” Dean said. He said the verbal description of the attack is disturbing enough. “It’s already having an effect on me.”

A disc of the surveillance video was made a court exhibit — not sealed — so anyone can apply to see it at a later date, he said.

Pillar’s case will be spoken to in court again next month to set a date for subsequent proceedings. His lawyer, Lisa Carnelos, did not say whether she intends to argue her client should be held not criminally responsible for his actions.

“It would not be appropriate for me to make comment at this time given that the proceedings are ongoing,” Carnelos said.

The family of Pillar’s victim similarly declined to comment. “It’s too early,” her son politely told reporters.

The attack shocked the community. Mayor Drew Dilkens said at the time he was so distressed by the incident, he visited the injured woman in hospital, bringing her flowers.

Earlier this month, another elderly woman was assaulted as she took a Sunday morning walk on the Ganatchio Trail. Last weekend, Dilkens hosted a walk in her honour attended by hundreds.