A Provincial Court judge in Prince George found a man not guilty on July 9 of assault and uttering threats to case death or bodily harm.
Brent James Ward, born in 1968, had been charged with assaulting a woman and man and uttering threats to a man during a confrontation at his residence in Prince George on March 25, 2024.
Ward denied the charges, argued that he was in a consensual fight and used reasonable force to eject a trespasser.
“I find Mr. Ward's evidence raises a reasonable doubt on all counts,” said Judge Cassandra Malfair. “And, therefore, I'm required by law to find Mr. Ward not guilty.”
Court heard that Ward lived with the woman. Her son, who had an opiate addiction, lived with them for a brief period of time. Personal items went missing and Ward found drug paraphernalia. He told the woman her son could no longer live there. The male went to a one-week detox facility, but wanted to store items at Ward’s. A physical altercation ensued when Ward came home to find the man loading items in his residence.
Malfair said that Ward testified he demanded the man leave the property and that Ward admitted striking him four or five times, including once or twice on the head.
“He did not really know what [the man] was capable of, but felt he had to defend his home and himself,” Malfair said.
Photographs of the alleged victims do not correspond with evidence given at trial.
The photographs of the woman “do not show any apparent injury,” Malfair said. The man claimed to have been hit 40 to 50 times, concussed, cut around his eye and his ear blooded.
Malfair said there was no evidence to suggest Ward delivered 40 to 50 blows or caused bruising, swelling or lacerations, except for a single scratch, and there was no medical evidence he was assessed or treated for concussive symptoms.
She was satisfied that Ward did not use excessive force or cause bodily harm. The Crown failed to prove a lack of consent to the physical force used by Ward against the man. Alternatively, he had an “honest, but mistaken belief that he had” the man’s consent for a fistfight.
Similarly, the Crown failed to prove that Ward assaulted the woman.
“if there was any physical contact between them at the doorway, it was unintentional,” the judge said.
