Sadists punished with heavy sentences

A Hamilton judge lowered the boom on three sadistic torturers, handing down maximum and near-maximum sentences for the trio on charges of aggravated assault and forcible confinement.

Defence lawyers for Nathaniel Jug, 23, Stanley Brown, 31, and Dakota Thompson, 22, urged Ontario Court Justice Fred Campling to sentence their clients to terms of between two years less a day and 4 1/2 years in prison. The prosecutor recommended sentences of four to five years for the convicted torturers.

The judge dutifully listened to their submissions and then dismissed them as woefully inadequate.

Campling said the vicious beatings, acts of torture and degradation that were inflicted on a 22-year-old mentally challenged man, during 17 days of captivity, met all the features of "stark-horror cases," for which the courts reserve the maximum punishments set out in the Criminal Code of Canada.

"Every one of these features was present in this case. Indeed, (the victim) was brutally disfigured. His injuries, when discovered by the police, were grave," said Campling.