HALIFAX — A Nova Scotia judge is urging a man to let go of a nose biting incident during a drunken brawl at a wake, after blocking the man’s efforts to appeal his aggravated assault conviction.
Randall MacLean was sentenced to six months in jail followed by a year of probation last February after being found guilty of aggravated assault for his conduct during an alcohol-fuelled brawl at a wake in Pictou, N.S., in 2014.
In a decision released on Friday, Justice Anne Derrick of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal denied MacLean’s motion for an extension of time to appeal the October 2016 conviction.
Derrick wrote that MacLean, who was released from jail in June, changed his mind several times about how he planned to pursue the appeal, arguing he had trouble focusing due to “injuries” sustained in the incident that led to his conviction.
She wrote that MacLean felt the provincial court judge did not fully consider his account of what he characterized as “accident,” in which he latched onto the victim’s nose to protect himself while he was forcibly ejected from the wake.
Derrick found that MacLean’s proposed grounds of appeal “lack all merit,” and while it seems he feels his conviction defines him, she assured him it does not, saying he “needs to now move on with his life and put all of this behind him.”
