Law student gets house arrest in "cult' abduction - Victim's family going on trial in anti-church intervention

A law student who participated in a brazen daylight kidnapping was sentenced to 15 months house arrest yesterday after admitting to a bizarre plot to rescue a woman whose family feared she was being brainwashed by a religious cult.

Alan Honner of Toronto was handed a conditional sentence by Superior Court Justice Robert Reilly after pleading guilty on April 24 to kidnapping and forcible confinement.

The Osgoode Hall law student was granted permission by the judge to leave his house for one day next month in order to write his bar admission exams. Honner still faces an uphill battle, however, to convince the Law Society of Upper Canada that someone with his newly acquired but serious criminal record should be admitted to the bar.

As part of the negotiated plea deal, assistant Crown attorney Michael Fox withdrew a charge of forcible confinement against the convicted man's sister, Theresa Honner.

A conditional sentence means the married father of 11-month-old twins will now have a criminal record, but will be permitted to serve his sentence under house arrest and community supervision.