Man who broke into Merritt home last March was beaten with kitchen ware before fleeing the scene. Now he’s been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
First he got his face beaten with a cast-iron frying pan, and now a Merritt crook has been sentenced to spend more than two years behind bars.
Lorne Kenneth Dunn pleaded guilty to break-and-enter and assault in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The guilty pleas came about an hour after the 28-year-old’s trial got underway. The only witness to testify was the victim, John Spahan.
Court heard Spahan was watching TV in his Clapperton Avenue home in Merritt at about 1:30 a.m. on March 28 when he heard a knock at the door.
“Lorne Dunn Jr. came to the door and he was asking for money,” Spahan said, explaining that he knew Dunn previously.
“When I went to go grab the door handle and turn it, he kicked the door in and I went flying.”
Spahan said Dunn then grabbed him by the neck and began forcing him around the basement suite. The fight eventually spilled into the kitchen.
“He just kept choking me and holding on with me and pushing me forward and forward and forward until I hit the sink,” Spahan said.
“I looked down and there’s a cast-iron frying pan right there in the sink.
“I was able to straight-arm him and then I hit him with the frying pan. Then I hit him again. Then I hit him again. Then I hit him a fourth time.
“Right about then, he said, ‘Okay, no more, no more, no more.’”
Dunn then fled the scene. He was arrested at a nearby convenience store after someone called police reporting a man with serious injuries to his face.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop sentenced Dunn to six months in jail for the assault and two years less a day for break-and-enter.
He will also be bound by an eight-month probation term once he’s released from jail.
by Tim Petruk, Kamloops this Week
