A B.C. Supreme Court judge has sentenced a 17-year-old boy to six years in prison for his part in the vicious beatings of two Indo-Canadian seniors in Surrey's Bear Creek Park in July 2005. The youth was found guilty of manslaughter, aggravated assault and robbery after he and another teen attacked the two elderly men with baseball bats in two separate attacks. Shingara Singh Thandi, 76, died of his injuries three weeks later in hospital. Mewa Singh Bains, 83, died of a stroke a month after the brutal attack. The other teen was sentenced to 3 years in April this year.
In delivering his sentence at the New Westminster courthouse on Thursday, Justice William Grist said he considered the extreme youth of the boy, even though he's been sentenced as an adult. But the judge said he also considered the magnitude of the crime, noting that both seniors died following the beatings. The youth, who has been in custody for 23 months, will now have to serve another 49 months. The Crown had asked for a seven-year sentence.
Families of the victims are not happy with the sentence. Mewa Singh Bains' son Dalvinder Bains said the sentence is too less and doesn't give a strong message to other youngsters against committing such a gruesome crime. Jhalmal Thandi, Shingara Singh Thandi's son, said the sentence wasn't decided in accordance to the crime.
