The rioter who faced the greatest number of counts against him should be jailed for six to nine months, the Crown argued in court on Friday.
Timothy Lau of the Comox Valley was charged with nine counts for helping to damage six vehicles – including two Hummer SUVs – and trashing or looting three stores the night the Vancouver Canucks lost in the Stanley Cup final.
“This is for Vancouver, f— Boston,” Lau screamed from atop a car he and other rioters destroyed, as shown in video evidence at his sentencing hearing in Vancouver provincial court.
Lau had been charged with participating in a riot, two counts of break and enter and six counts of mischief. He pleaded guilty to the most serious charge, rioting, and the other charges are to be stayed.
Most of the other 200-plus rioters charged were charged with one to three offences.
Lau also pleaded guilty to a breach of a bail condition stemming from the riot arrest that banned him from using alcohol or drugs after he was found lying drunk in the road in Ucluelet this summer.
Lau, wearing a dark suit and his hair cut short, was accompanied by his elderly parents and two other supporters in court.
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Lau, who was in Vancouver on game day for a medical appointment, decided against taking a scheduled flight back to the island so he could watch the game.
He said he drank what Crown called an “extremely large amount of alcohol,” which Lau estimated at different times as seven, 12 or 20 pitchers of beer with a few other people, and he took MDMA, or ecstacy.
He was seen on video bashing a Hummer with a skateboard, helping to try flip it, fiddling with its gas cap and high-fiving another rioter and raising his hands in victory atop trashed vehicles.
He’s also shown throwing a mannequin at a second Hummer and seating it behind the wheel of another car, and climbing on the canopy of the Bay and dropping a shovel on to the ground – a tool later used by another rioter to break the store’s windows.
Lau turned himself in days after the riot after he saw a photo of himself posing atop a car and said that was the first time he was aware of what he did that night because he has no memory of it.
He has written a letter of apology to Blenz coffee shop, Black and Lee tuxedo rental, the Bay and the owners of the six vehicles he helped trash, a report of which was published last week in the Comox Valley Echo, saying he was “deeply sorry” for what he did.
When asked in court if he had anything to say, Lau stood and in an emotional voice said, “It was unfortunate that this happened. I regret it a lot.”
Crown read the victim impact statements of a number of vehicle owners, including the owner of a Hummer that was written off by ICBC for $40,000 and cost $52,000 to replace.
The owner, who also lost $5,000 worth of belongings from the SUV, witnessed the vandalism against the vehicle, which traumatized him and his young daughter, court heard.
Crown argued that jail is necessary to fulfill sentencing principles of deterrence and denunciation.
Defence lawyer Matt Low suggested two months jail would be an appropriate sentence, plus 14 days for the breach, and said Lau was willing to pay $2,000 restitution.
Low noted that rioter Sean Yates, who received the longest jail term at seven months among the nine adult first offenders already sentenced, aggressively taunted police, and that his client’s offences deserve less time.
He also referred to several reference letters filed in support of Lau, all of which said it was out of character for him to do what he did.
Low also said Lau was taking steps to deal with his alcohol problem, “which seems to be driving pretty much all of this.”
Judge Reg Harris reserved his decision until next month.
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