http://www.xtra.ca/public/Vancouver/UPDATE_Hes_a_faggot_He_deserved_it-89
48.aspx
Shawn Woodward is a "liar" and fabricated evidence, the Crown said in
closing submissions on July 26 in the alleged ...bashing case at the
Fountainhead.
Woodward is facing a charge of aggravatedault in the March 13, 2009
attack in which he had admitted he hit Ritchie Dowrey, then 61.
Vancouver provincial court Judge Jocelyn Palmer says she will rule in
the case on Aug 10.
Woodward is relying on a self-defence claim, saying that Dowrey
attempted to grab his crotch just prior to the punch.
"The Crown urges the court in finding that no allegedault - .ual
or otherwise - occurred," Crown counsel Jacinta Lawton told Palmer.
"That is a fabrication by Mr Woodward."
She called the punch "excessive."
"The effect of the incident to Mr Dowrey is catastrophic," she said. "I
invite you to convict Mr Woodward of aggravatedault."
Defence lawyer Joel Whysall argued Woodward should be acquitted. "One
punch is not excessive in the face of a crotch grab," he said. "There is
no medical evidence (from the punch alone) to support the view that the
force was excessive."
He said Woodward is not a liar.
"Why else would he hit a complete stranger?" Whysall asked. "He has to
have an explanation. There is no reasonable alternative except my
client's explanation. There's no hateful or anti-homo.ual statements
made before or during theault."
He told Palmerault laws allow for self-defence in the case of a real
or perceived threat.
What's more, Whysall said, Woodward knew the reputation of the pub and
its clientele.
"It is not a case that hinges on .ual preference," Whysall said. "It
makes no difference if it is man to man, man to woman or woman to
woman."
In earlier testimony, Palmer heard from witness Greg Price, a friend and
roommate of the accused, that Dowrey approached Woodward several times.
Price said Dowrey first offered to buy Woodward a drink and later
touched him on the shoulder.
Woodward testified that Dowrey put his arm around him at one point and
squeezed him.
In the incident before the punch, Whysall says Dowrey touched Woodward
in the crotch, "a highly personal area... without his consent."
"He was touched inappropriately in a .ual manner," Whysall said. "He
is entitled to use force to repel anault."
Woodward testified about the alleged touch prior to the punch when he
took the stand last week.
"I felt his hand graze across my thigh toward my crotch," Woodward
testified on Thursday. "I closed my fist and punched him in the chin. He
fumbled backwards and fell."
But, argued Lawton, there was no crotch grab.
She says it was key evidence Woodward would have provided to police on
being detained - but didn't.
Further, she says, Woodward appeared unsure where Dowrey was in relation
to him, given the fact he said they were facing each other and Dowrey's
left hand touched his left thigh.
"This is a key element of the incident and something you would not be
mistaken about," she told Palmer. "Mr Woodward really is mistaken on a
key point."
Woodward then turned and left the bar, evidence shows. A video
surveillance tape from the pub shows him stepping over Dowrey and
leaving, with his friend Price leaving through another door, also
videotaped.
Whysall told Palmer much of what happened outside the pub can be
attributed to Woodward's state of mind at being surrounded by agitated
people from the pub.
Patron Lindsay Wincherauk testified that Woodward said, "'He's a faggot.
He deserved it. The faggot touched me. He deserved it.'"
Whysall did not deny the slurs are homophobic but said it was the angry
and confused man's response to his situation
"A cornered animal will show its teeth to ensure its safety," he said.
Further, Whysall cautioned the judge against giving too much weight to
Wincherauk's recall of the words because it was not used in the man's
original statement to police.
"Isn't it a better newspaper headline - 'He deserved it. He was a
faggot.'" Whysall asked.
He called into question testimony from Fountainhead bartender Scott
Larin.
Whysall said in one version Larin said Woodward said 'Get out of my way,
faggot" while another version uses the word "fag" while in a third
version the words are "Get your hands off me, faggot."
Lawton said Woodward's words "suggest an anti-... sentiment in his mind
at the moment he punched (Dowrey)."
"They offer insight into what was going on in his mind," she told the
court.
She said Woodward told a detective he was getting tired of Dowrey's
attentions "because he wanted to leave the impression he was the victim
of a .ualault."
Added Lawton, "(Woodward) did agree he called Mr Dowrey a faggot after
the incident and he may have said 'he deserved it,'" Lawton said.
Woodward has also changed his evidence, Lawton argued.
She said he initially told the police Dowrey touched him, while in court
the evidence became a crotch grab.
She further cast doubt on Woodward's story that he had invited Price
down for a drink. She said Price taking a bus and a SkyTrain and then a
cab Woodward paid for to get to the pub, watching some of a Canucks game
and then going for dinner at Woodward's doesn't ring true.
Further, Lawton asked why Woodward and Price stayed at the pub after
Woodward's construction worker friends had left even though Woodward
said he found Dowrey's attentions unwanted.
"(It) begs the question 'why?'" Lawton said.
She also questioned Price's evidence that he didn't see the punch when
it appears contradicted by what can be seen in videotape of the events.
"You see Mr Price clearly looking in the direction of theault, he
sees it and almost at the same time he leaves," Lawton submitted.
"There must have been some conversation between Mr Price and Mr
Woodward... whereby Mr Price knew what Mr Woodward was going to do,"
Lawton said.
Lawton also questioned why Woodward chose to exit using a route that saw
him go straight past the man he claimed had made him uncomfortable with
his attentions.
"It would have been easier for him to use the other way," she said.
Lawton said Price had claimed he was shocked by the punch.
Yet, she said, addressing the suggestions Price and Woodward may have
been in collusion on an attack on Dowrey, Price was straight out of the
door after the punch was thrown and Dowrey dropped to the floor.
"Mr Price is very quick on his feet for someone who is in shock," she
told Palmer.
Whysall rejected the notion that theault was planned.
"If there was a plot to punch (Dowrey), why isn't my client sprinting
down the street?" he asked.
UPDATE: July 23, 5pm
A Crown prosecutor Friday picked apart the .ualault allegations
made by the man accused in the March 13, 2009 alleged ...bashing at The
Fountainhead.
Shawn Woodward, 37, is charged with aggravatedault in the attack
which left former stockbroker Ritchie Dowrey in a care home unable to
look after himself.
Prosecutor Jacinta Lawton went through testimony about the evening's
events piece by piece before confronting Woodward with one statement.
"You walked over to Mr Dowrey and punched him square in the face because
he had the audacity to ask to buy you a drink or to play pool in a ...
bar," she said.
"I disagree with that," Woodward said.
Woodward admitted Thursday he punched Dowrey. He told the court he did
it after Dowrey made three alleged advances towards him: offering to buy
him a drink, later putting his arm around him, and finally brushing his
crotch.
"I felt his hand graze across my thigh toward my crotch," Woodward
testified Thursday. "I closed my fist and punched him in the chin. He
fumbled backwards and fell."
Under cross-examination by Lawton, Woodward appeared confused.
He told Lawton the pair had been face to face as he attempted to leave
the pub.
Dowrey brushed his left thigh, he said. "We were pretty much in front of
each other."
He said Dowrey had a pool cue in his right hand.
That would mean the pool cue was by Woodward's left thigh.
Lawton questioned how it could be that Dowrey would bypass Woodward's
crotch yet then move his hand back toward it. "On your evidence, Mr.
Dowrey has to reach across your crotch to get to your thigh," Lawton
said.
"He didn't grab your crotch?" she asked.
"My crotch? No," Woodward answered.
"Have you ever had someone touch your crotch?" she asked. "Did he or did
he not touch your crotch?"
"Yes, he did," Woodward said.
Lawton pointed to the statement Woodward gave police hours after the
incident. In it, Woodward said he wasn't sure if it was a hand that
touched him.
"You don't know what his intention was when he moved his hand," Lawton
said.
"I was fairly sure what it was," Woodward answered.
He said he was going to give Dowrey a slap but formed a fist instead.
Lawton again read from Woodward's statements in the police interview
transcript from March 14, 2009. "I went to bitch-slap him but I then
thought (that's) probably not appropriate in this place so I just gave
him a little knock," Woodward told a detective.
He told the court he was offended by Dowrey's comment that "you'll be
back."
Lawton suggested to Woodward he was upset by the implication that Dowrey
thought he was ... or didn't know he was.
Woodward disagreed.
Lawton again pointed to Woodward's police statement. In it, he said
Dowrey said "something inappropriate."
When the detective asked for the exact words, Woodward said, "I can't
recall."
Lawton questioned that. "Eight hours after this incident you couldn't
remember this comment that offended you so much? Now, over a year and a
half later you remember it was "you'll be back."
Lawton also put to Woodward the testimony of Const Thomas Nilhausen who
told the court Woodward had said on arrest that Dowrey had grabbed his
crotch.
Friday, Woodward said Dowrey had touched his crotch for a "miniscule"
amount of time.
"Did he squeeze it?" asked Lawton.
"No," said Woodward.
"He didn't grab it?" She asked.
"No," he responded.
Lawton also questioned why Woodward had taken that route out of the bar
as it involved passing Dowrey again who, he claimed, was the reason he
was leaving.
He agreed he had been closer to another door when he decided to leave
with his friend Greg Price.
He said the intention had been to go to his home with Price for dinner.
Lawton questioned why he then left the bar without his friend and
proceeded down Burrard.
It was there Woodward was caught by bar staff and patrons.
"He said, 'He's a faggot. He deserved it. The faggot touched me. He
deserved it,'" patron Lindsay Wincherauk testified July 21. "It was
brash, very, very strong."
Lawton further questioned Woodward on Dowrey's alleged advances.
Woodward said Dowrey first made eye contact with him. Lawton asked if
that made him uncomfortable.
"Initially, no but I thought it was bit strange. I just thought it was
weird that he kept looking at me."
"So," asked Lawton, "you thought it was odd in a largely ... bar that a
man you thought was ... would come up and ask to buy you a drink?"
Responded Woodward, "It was strange to me."
Next, according to Woodward, Dowrey put his arm around him and squeezed
him. Woodward called that "aggressive."
At that point, Lawton interjected. She said Woodward had described it as
"persistent" before.
Woodward agreed he had changed his evidence.
"Is it possible he was being friendly?" she asked. "Have any of your
friends ever done that to you?"
"You didn't like it when this man you thought was ... came up and put
his arm around you," Lawton said.
Woodward said he asked Dowrey not to touch him and to leave him alone.
"I was getting frustrated," he said.
"But you stayed another 20 minutes?" Lawton asked.
"Yes," Woodward responded.
"Did you believe he was attracted to you?" Lawton asked.
"At that point, yes," Woodward said.
Lawton asked Woodward if he has ever offered to buy a girl a drink after
being rebuffed.
"No, I have not," he said.
But, he said he wouldn't find it strange if other guys did try a second
time with women.
Woodward also testified he believed Dowrey was drunk.
"I could tell he had been drinking by the way he was talking and
slurring his speech and stuff," he said. "There was a few times he did
stagger and stuff."
Fountainhead chief bartender Scott Larin testified earlier that Dowrey
had one double Bombay gin with a twist of lemon. A second one Dowrey had
ordered remained untouched on the bar after theault, Larin said.
Lawton also questioned Woodward on his statement to police about the
number of times he had been to The Fountainhead.
"I have been there three times exactly. No I've been twice that I know
of," Woodward's statement says.
Later in the statement, Woodward denied the attack was a hate crime.
"At no point in the interview did (the detective) mention hate crime,"
Lawton said. "Those are your words."
"Correct," said Woodward.
Woodward had also testified he was bewildered by the situation outside
the pub after he was detained while police arrived.
Lawton asked him if he had done anything to get rid of his confusion.
"Yeah, I tried to leave," he answered.
"I'm going to suggest to you that you could have said 'what's the big
deal,'" Lawton said. "In fact, you tried to bust through these people.
You knew you did something wrong."
Palmer will hear closing arguments on July 26. It's not known if she
will deliver her judgment that day.
UPDATE: July 22, 6:30pm
Police officers who arrested the man charged with aggravatedault
after an alleged ...bashing at Vancouver's Fountainhead Pub on March 13,
2009 say he wanted the victim charged with .ualault.
Vancouver Police Department Const Blake Chersinoff was one of the first
officers to deal with Shawn Woodward after he was held by customers and
patrons following theault on pub regular Ritchie Dowrey.
In testimony before Vancouver provincial court Judge Jocelyn Palmer,
Chersinoff was asked what Woodward said when arrested.
"'He touched me. I'm not a fag. He touched me. I'm not a fag,'"
Chersinoff responded. "He repeated that over and over."
Woodward's trial began July 21 and is scheduled through July 26.
Woodward admitted he hit Dowrey when he took the stand Thursday.
"I felt his hand graze across my thigh toward my crotch," Woodward
testified. "I closed my fist and punched him in the chin. He fumbled
backwards and fell."
Asked by his lawyer, Joel Whysall, why he then fled the bar, Woodward
said he "didn't want anything to do with that situation anymore."
It wasn't until almost six hours later that a detective told Woodward
that Dowrey was unconscious in hospital.
"I was horrified," said Woodward, clearly emotional.
He confirmed the statements he made on arrest.
"I said, 'He touched me. I'm not a fag. He's a fag. He shouldn't have
touched me,'" Woodward said.
Woodward said he was "very angry, agitated, upset, kind of bewildered"
when he said the words.
However, he said he could not recall saying Dowrey deserved to be
punched as other witnesses have testified.
In court, he said he had no intention to injure Dowrey.
"He grabbed me. I was trying to get out. I was trying to get away. He
grabbed me," Woodward said.
Whysall said there must have been options other than punching Dowrey.
"It's the only option I could think of at the time that would get me out
of there," Woodward said.
"Did you hit him because he was ...?" Whysall asked.
"No, I did not," Woodward said.
Whysall then asked if Woodward knew Dowrey was ....
"I got a feeling, yes," he responded.
He said he knew The Fountainhead was a ... bar.
"I knew the Davie St. area as a predominantly ... and homo.ual area,"
Woodward said.
Woodward's friend, Greg Price, told the court earlier that Woodward had
invited him for a drink on that evening.
"'Come on down for a beer,'" Price said Woodward suggested late that
afternoon. "He said he was at The Fountainhead pub on Davie St."
Price told the court he witnessed theault.
"Shawn punched him in the jaw and he fell to the ground," Price said.
Price, a longtime friend and roommate of Woodward, said he had two or
three bottles of beer while Woodward had four or five. He said they had
been there with Woodward's construction co-workers who left not long
after Price arrived.
Price said realized the pub was a ... and in a "predominantly ... area"
after he arrived.
He said Woodward paid for a cab for him to get from Granville SkyTrain
station to the Davie and Burrard pub.
"It didn't look like a bad little pub," he said. "I could tell the
patrons were of a homo.ual nature by the way they were interacting
with each other. Guys were grabbing each other'ses."
He said he had seen Dowrey "periodically glancing in our area."
Price said Dowrey first approached Woodward and offered to buy him a
drink just after the other workers left.
"Shawn told him, 'No, I'm not like that,'" Price testified.
He said Dowrey later returned and put his hand on Woodward's shoulder.
Woodward asked him not to, Price told the court. "He was civil but he
was trying to get his point across that he didn't want to be touched. A
little more stern than your average voice but it wasn't hostile."
Price said Dowrey approached Woodward maybe four times.
"He seemed civil but he persisted. He wouldn't leave Shawn alone," Price
said.
Price said Woodward appeared in no way hostile.
Price said Dowrey appeared intoxicated.
"I saw him stumble a couple times," Price said. "He slurred his words a
little bit. It might be he tripped over something. I justumed it was
the booze."
Price had earlier testified he had not heard what was being said.
Fountainhead chief bartender Scott Larin testified earlier that Dowrey
had one double Bombay gin with a twist of lemon. A second one Dowrey had
ordered remained untouched on the bar after theault, Larin said.
Price told the court that Woodward indicated he wanted to leave.
"He said, 'Let's get out of here.' I justumed Shawn'd had enough of
this guy bothering him," Price said.
Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Jacinta Lawton, Price said
Woodward put on his backpack prior to the attack.
There, the judge interjected.
"Did the backpack go on before or after the punch?" Palmer asked.
In previous testimony, Fountainhead regular Bin Pham said he heard an
exchange between Woodward and a tall skinny guy.
Price is six feet tall and weighed 145 pounds at the time of the
incident, the court heard.
Pham said while he was racking the balls for a pool game with Dowrey, he
heard a short guy, indicating Woodward, say to the tall, skinny man:
"Are you okay with that?"
He said the other responded, "'Yes, I'm okay with that.'"
Lawton questioned Price about the exchange Pham heard.
"He said, 'Are you okay with that?'" Price confirmed. "He was referring
to leaving."
Price confirmed he and Woodward left the bar immediately after the
punch. Prior to that, the accused and victim had been standing near each
other, Price said.
Price said once he and Woodward were on Davie St, "a bunch of guys came
out of the bar" and restrained Woodward.
"'You don't touch me.' I remember him saying that several times," Price
testified. "I believe he was referring to the incident inside the bar."
But, he added, he did not see Dowrey touch Woodward more than once,
referring to the touch on the shoulder.
Price said he did not hear any of the other comments made outside the
bar while waiting for police.
Despite that evidence, two other witnesses testified to hearing
homophobic remarks from Woodward.
"He said 'He's a faggot. He deserved it. The faggot touched me. He
deserved it,'" Wincherauk testified July 21. "It was brash, very, very
strong."
Yesterday, Larin told the court he heard homophobic statements as well.
However, on Thursday, Whysall took issue with some of Larin's testimony
and the fact that he did not write a full statement for police on the
night of the incident.
Whysall suggested Larin couldn't remember whether Woodward had said
"fag" or "faggot."
"I'm going to suggest to you that this is a total fabrication," Whysall
said. "It never happened."
Larin had already objected to Whysall's questioning.
"He's calling me a liar again, Your Honour," Larin told Palmer.
The judge interjected after Whysall asked Price if he had ever seen
Woodward threaten a homo.ual.
"No," said Price before Lawton jumped in with an objection.
"This is not a case about whether Mr Woodward is on general principle
homophobic or not," she said. "What is an issue is his reaction to what
happened in the bar that evening. What was his intent that evening?"
The judge questioned why Whysall would want to put Woodward's character
at issue.
Whysall said it was to put into context his client's statements outside
the pub.
"People have been told it's a complete and utter fabrication," Palmer
said. "Now we're putting it into context. What's going on?"
Lawton took a number of witnesses through testimony on the opening day
detailing the bar, its predominantly ... clientele and its location in
Vancouver's ... village.
Wincherauk mentioned the rainbow flags in The Fountainhead.
"In Vancouver, basically it means ...," he said.
Lawton told the court in her opening that Woodward's punch resulted in
injuries including bleeding on the brain, a shift in the brain and a
skull fracture.
Six months later, Dowrey remains in a care home.
July 21, 5:45pm
"He's a faggot. He deserved it. He touched me. I'm not a faggot. The
faggot deserved it."' Those words, or variations thereof, are what
witnesses heard the accused say after they detained him outside the
Fountainhead Pub on March 13, 2009.
Shawn Woodward had, moments earlier, knocked Ritchie Dowrey unconscious
with a punch to the head then calmly stepped over the body and left,
witnesses told a Vancouver provincial court judge.
Woodward is on trial for aggravatedault for the attack on Dowrey.
The four-day trial began on July 21.
Crown prosecutor Jacinta Lawton told Judge Jocelyn Palmer that the
assault took place in the Davie St neighbourhood pub, which attracts a
mixed crowd, including members of the ... community.
"Davie St is known as a place where everyone is welcome, especially
members of the ... community," Lawton said.
Lawton asked all four witnesses Wednesday to characterize the pub. All
said it was a mixed neighbourhood pub crowd that caters predominantly to
the ... community.
When asked outside court if she will be seeking a hate designation to be
added to a possible conviction, Lawton said it was too early to say.
"That's a consideration for sentencing," she told Xtra. "We'll wait and
see how it unfolds and what the judge's decision is."
Though Woodward plans to rely on a self-defence case alleging Dowrey
made .ual advances toward him, Lawton described the attack during a
pool game as unprovoked.
"The evidence will show that... Mr Woodward delivered a single punch to
the head of Mr Dowrey that resulted in massive brain injuries in Mr
Dowrey," Lawton told Palmer. "As a result, he will never live the same
again."
"There was no .ualault or attempted .ualault by Mr Dowrey,"
Lawton added.
Lawton said the risk of injury to Dowrey had to have been foreseen by
Woodward.
The court heard from four witnesses Wednesday including bar staff and
patrons.
Lawton opened her case by showing a number of videos from security
cameras in the bar. While they do not show theault itself, they do
show Dowrey falling to the ground and someone stepping over him and
heading toward the door.
"Mr Dowrey does not move in the end of the video," Lawton said. "He does
not move at all."
The court heard Woodward immediately left the bar and was pursued by
staff and patrons who caught him down the street.
Waitress Kristi McNicholl told the court she knew Dowrey as an "amicable
person. He was friends with everyone."
She said she saw Dowrey was leaning over a pool table to make a shot
when Woodward punched him.
She said Woodward appeared to be with a group of construction workers
who had been patronizing the bar on Fridays.
McNicholl said Woodward had put on his backpack and hat as if ready to
leave before walking round the table. She said he had been watching
Dowrey.
"The accused just raised his arm, turned it into a fist... punched
Ritchie in the back left jaw area," she said.
Dowrey then fell straight backward and struck his head on a tile floor,
she said.
"It was loud. It was a pop. It was something a lot of people heard," she
testified.
"The accused just hopped right over him completely calm and walked right
out the door," McNicholl said.
Patron Lindsay Wincherauk testified he had been sitting at the end of
the bar with the pool table in his line of vision.
He said Woodward came around the end of the table with his arm raised.
He said Dowrey was raising his hand as if to high-five the accused.
"I saw a fist being pulled back," Wincherauk testified. "Mr Dowrey
started to raise his hand. "In a matter of a flash, Mr Dowrey was
falling to the ground.
"He [Woodward] hit him square in the face," Wincherauk said.
He described the victim's fall like a straight piece of wood falling
before Dowrey hit his head on the tile. "It was hard enough to knock him
over backward."
"There was a sickening thud," Wincherauk said.
"Mr Dowrey had a smile on his face while all of this was happening," he
added.
Woodward's lawyer, Joel Whysall, suggested to Wincherauk that Dowrey
was, in fact, raising his hands to defend himself.
"Most of the time people aren't smiling when they're protecting
themselves," Wincherauk retorted. "I believe he held up his hand to high
five."
Under questioning from Lawton, Wincherauk told the court "it's quite
obvious" the pub caters to a ... crowd. He pointed to the giant
paintings of . men and women. He also mentioned the pub's rainbow
flags. "In Vancouver, basically it means ...," he said.
Whysall also questioned Wincherauk about his involvement in a press
conference with local politicians and community leaders after the
attack. Whysall suggested the thrust of the media conference was for the
attack to be considered a hate crime.
Lawton jumped in and questioned the relevance of the question. The judge
backed Lawton. "I'm not sure how the witness can attest to the
motivation of a throng of people," Palmer ruled.
Patron Bin Pham testified to seeing the attack. He said Dowrey was in
the bar to celebrate his retirement.
Pham testified he and Dowrey decided to play pool.
Pham said that while he was racking the balls, he heard a short guy,
indicating Woodward, say to another man: "Are you okay with that?"
He said the other responded, "'Yes, I'm okay with that."
Head bartender Scott Larin later testified that as Woodward was in
police custody, he turned to the other man and said, "'Remember what you
were supposed to see. Yeah, he touched me, he touched me.'"
After hearing the exchange, Pham said Woodward pulled his arm all the
way back with a fist and punched Dowrey in the face.
Wincherauk said Woodward casually walked out of the bar after stepping
over Dowrey.
He said he and several other patrons and staffers caught him about 100
feet down the street and told him they were going to detain him.
He said Woodward tried to barge through the group several times, saying
he was going home.
"He said 'He's a faggot. He deserved it. The faggot touched me. He
deserved it,'" Wincherauk testified. "It was brash, very, very strong."
Wincherauk says he then took Woodward's hat and threw it into the
community garden.
"I said, 'Don't you want to hit me?'" Wincherauk said. "He started the
faggot stuff again. It was kind of a continuous loop."
Larin said he got to Woodward first outside the bar.
"His first words were 'He deserved it,'" Larin said. "'He's .... He's a
fag. He deserved it. He touched me,'" Larin said Woodward told him.
Larin said he then moved in to subdue Woodward.
His words to me as I got close were, 'Get the . out of my way,
faggot,'" Larin said.
Larin said he pushed Woodward against a fence to hold him for police who
were then arriving.
He said he leaned in close and whispered in Woodward's ear. "I said,
'Guess what? I'm not ...," Larin said. "He stopped."
At that point, bouncers from Celebrities arrived and took control of the
screaming Woodward until police arrived and put the accused in a car,
Larin said.
Larin said Dowrey had only had one drink and that Woodward appeared
sober.
Medical evidence admitted by consent of Crown and defence notes Dowrey
was "deeply unconscious" when admitted to Vancouver General Hospital,
where he underwent a three-hour operation.
Lawton told the court Dowrey had bleeding on the brain, a shift in his
brain position and a skull fracture.
Whenessed two months later, Dowrey could not move his left side and
had minor motion on the right.
He couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and was incontinent, Lawton told Palmer.
He now lives in a care home in Langley where he needs help with eating,
dressing and going to the bathroom, she said.
"The Ritchie Dowrey that went into The Fountainhead on March 13, 2009,
is gone," Lawton said.
Dowrey's brother Allan was in court but declined to comment on the case.
A number of members of the ... community were in court, including
Fountainhead manager Derek White.
He said he had problems looking at Woodward in court.
"I'm pissed off that he had the nerve to come into our pub and take away
that sense of security that we'd always had," White said.
The trial is scheduled to continue through July 26. |
