Two Abbotsford men who pleaded guilty in connection with a knife attack that hospitalized their victim were sentenced to house arrest last Tuesday in provincial court.

Bhavdeep Deol and Herman Sidhu pleaded to the charge of assault causing bodily harm after taking part in a group assault of a 24-year-old man in August, 2010.

Deol, Sidhu and another man, Gurparit Gill, were originally charged with aggravated assault after a lone man was punched, kicked and stabbed after exiting Finnegan's Pub on King Road around 1:40 a.m. on Aug. 22.

The trio fled in a black Honda Civic but was caught by police in the car a short time later, several kilometers away.

The victim was hospitalized with slash marks and puncture wounds, and had to have surgery to repair a ruptured bowel.

Judge Jill Rounthwaite handed Deol a 12-month conditional sentence followed by a year's probation while Sidhu got a nine-month conditional sentence.

Neither of the two men was involved in the stabbing of the victim, but both conceded being involved to varying extent in the physical altercation, court heard.

The pair was also prohibited to consume alcohol or illicit drugs and cannot possess any weapons.

However, the judge imposed only a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. for three months because the men had been under a strict curfew as part of their bail conditions for the two years preceding the sentence.

Deol, 23, received a longer sentence and probation, as he was the largest of the three assailants who witnesses reported seeing land some punches, blows or kicks.

He also had a prior conviction for assault causing bodily harm, and had been jailed for 42 days for breach after consuming alcohol in violation of his bail conditions in the recent case.

Sidhu received the lesser sentence because although he admitted to being involved in the assault, witness reports also suggested he tried to defuse the situation.

The 22-year-old also had no criminal record and had adhered to his strict bail conditions.

Gill, the main assailant and who had a significant criminal history, was sentenced to four years behind bars in May, 2011 for the stabbing and an additional firearms charge.

Rounthwaite told Deol and Sidhu to consider their conditional sentence as a "guillotine" hanging over their head.

If either disobeyed their conditions and were brought back to court, they'd likely land in prison.

"I can tell you, I treat breaches of my conditional orders very seriously," she said.

The judge noted that the victim, who couldn't work for seven months following the attack, had suffered significantly.

"While you've had consequences . . . [due to the curfews] the consequences to him have been multiplied by 100."

RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com

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