Pepper spray attack nets 100 days

Discharging a can of pepper spray at a Christmas party last year has netted a 32-year-old Lethbridge man a jail sentence.

A drunken Nathan Wolf Child walked into Galaxy Bowl on the northside Dec. 18 during a church Christmas party and began yelling and swearing at a group of people, including children, participating in the event.

One of the leaders of the group, as well as the manager of the business, asked Wolf Child to leave, and he was pulled outside. Wolf Child got away, however, and ran back inside the bowling alley where he pulled a can of pepper spray from a duffel bag and sprayed the church leader when he grabbed him a second time.

Wolf Child pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court to one count of assault with a weapon and was sentenced to 100 days in jail. Wolf Child, who appeared by closed-circuit TV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre, was given credit for time already spent in custody, however, and released.

Crown prosecutor Vaughan Hartigan told court the incident was particularly aggravating because Wolf Child, who has a lengthy criminal record for violent offences, discharged the highly noxious pepper spray at another person, and there were children nearby. “It was very disturbing for them,” Hartigan said. Defence lawyer Claudia Connolly said her client, who suffers from severe fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, was sorry for his conduct, especially since it occurred near children.

“He felt very bad when he found out what happened,” Connolly said.

Wolf Child apologized in court, and said he is “trying to work” on his addiction to alcohol.

In addition to his jail sentence, Wolf Child was placed on probation for a year, prohibited from possessing certain firearms and weapons for 10 years and others for life, and ordered to submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank.

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