A 30-year-old Prince George man received a conditional discharge after pleading guilty May 26 in Provincial Court to using a weapon and committing an assault.
David Alexander Gauk will spend the next year on probation, but have no criminal record if he obeys the law and follows Judge Peter McDermick’s conditions, including 80 hours of community work service.
McDermick heard evidence from Crown and defence lawyers that RCMP officers were called at 9:35 p.m. on June 2, 2024 to the front lawn of a residence where they heard yelling. They discovered Gauk sitting on another man’s back, holding a machete to the back of the victim’s neck.
Gauk did not immediately comply, so he was taken into custody at gunpoint. The victim suffered superficial cuts to the back of his neck. Gauk was bleeding from the mouth.
The two men had met at a bar and were heavily drunk. The victim told police that a struggle ensued while he tried to leave Gauk’s property and then Gauk tackled him from behind.
Gauk claimed the victim had threatened him. Gauk was so intoxicated that he had difficulty standing and remembering his surname.
“It was not spontaneous,” McDermick said. “It did not come ex nihilo or out of nothing. They met, they were drinking. This has all been a wake up call for Mr. Gauk, according to Mr. Gauk’s mother, who is here in court today, supporting her son.”
McDermick said it was a “hidden blessing” that Gauk realized his drinking was out of control and he told his mother he needed her help. Gauk, who has a career in carpentry, has been living at a Vancouver Island residential recovery facility where he is in the second stage of the program.
