‘The gore is shocking:’ man sentenced for horrific hammer attack against mother in Campbell River

All of Wilson’s criminal convictions are assaults against his mother.

The most recent incident was a graphic and prolonged assault on Feb. 12, 2018 in a Campbell River apartment he shared with his mother.

Justice Baird laid out the shocking facts of the case during Wilson’s remotely conducted sentencing hearing at BC Supreme Court in Nanaimo.

Wilson’s mother was on the computer in her bedroom researching possible local resources for her son just moments before the chilling attack. Wilson was left with significant and permanent cognitive deficits after a serious traumatic brain injury in 2001.

An unprovoked Wilson walked into his mother’s room with a hammer and forcefully hit her in the back of the head.

He continued to shower his now 65-year-old mother with blows from above.

Wilson, a large man at 6’2” and 270 lbs. told his much smaller mother she was going to die.

“Blood was spattered on the bedroom floor and the wall,” Justice Baird said, as the mother sobbed over the television feed. “She begged the offender to stop. He refused and carried on.”

Wounded and bloodied, the victim pleaded for her son to stop, but he refused.

She then managed to escape to the bathroom and lock the door.

Several hours passed inside the bathroom as she lapsed in and out of consciousness from pain and blood loss.

“I have been shown pictures of the bathroom in question,” Justice Baird said. “There is blood everywhere, the gore is shocking.”

Baird said during this time Wilson ate cereal, watched TV and talked with friends on the phone.

He would repeatedly ask his mother through the bathroom door “Do you love me now mom?”

She screamed for help and made enough noise by kicking the drywall to attract the neighbours’ attention.

Wilson broke through the locked door before help arrived and began hitting his mother with the TV remote, telling her he would stop if she shut up.

She complied and Wilson went back in the living room.

After he left, she fled for her life out of the apartment and took refuge with a neighbour.

The assault lasted approximately seven hours.

Wilson was arrested a short time later at a nearby restaurant. He was covered head to toe in his mother’s blood.

She spent five weeks in hospital and couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks, court was told.

Her debilitating wounds included both her arms broke, serious and permanent nerve damage and 20 lacerations on her scalp.

She was diagnosed with PTSD, suffers from headaches, nightmares and is afraid her son will track her down and kill her. Court was told she has no intentions of re-establishing a relationship with her son ever again.

Wilson has been in custody ever since the incident. His guilty plea was entered after a preliminary inquiry.

The defence lobbied for no further jail time and 3 years probation, arguing it’s a case of diminished responsibility due to lack of impulse and anger control associated with Wilson’s brain injury.

The Crown pushed for at least two-and-a-half years of more jail time.

The maximum penalty for aggravated assault in Canada is 14 years in prison. Justice Baird noted circumstances similar to Wilson’s typically carry a sentence of 16 months to six years behind bars.

Baird said psychiatric opinions submitted to the court didn’t identify any mental disorder exempting Wilson from criminal responsibility.

“His moral culpability must be rated as correspondingly high, not withstanding his pre-existing brain injury, which I conclude on the whole was a contributing, but limited factor in the violence against the complainant.”

Wilson was previously diagnosed with anti-social and psychopathic tenancies.

Court was told his troubled, displaced childhood included an abusive, alcoholic father. Wilson had emotional problems in his youth and was frequently expelled from school for violent acts.

In 2006, Wilson was found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder for punching his mother a dozen times after she refused to give him a cigarette.

He spent one-and-a-half years in a psychiatric hospital for the incident.

Wilson was later convicted of assault with a weapon for an unprovoked 2009 attack against his mother. The blade of the knife he used broke at the handle and his mother wasn’t seriously hurt.

He was sentenced to 14 months in jail.

Court was told Wilson was on a continuous cycle of being removed from group homes to be taken back by his mother. She was the only person who really cared for Wilson.

Justice Baird advised Wilson to stay away from his mother permanently, beyond the no-contact order during the probationary term.

His mother is conflicted by the loss of connection with her son, saddened by what his life became and apprehensive about how he would live without her.

There is no post-release plan for Wilson at this time, beyond an indication he could stay with a friend in Victoria for several weeks.

He was apologetic for his actions in a brief address to the court.

“Everyday I think about how bad I’ve been as a son to you, you’ve always been so great to me. I’m just sorry I’ve treated you like crap all my life,” Wilson said.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes

by Ian Holmes

‘The gore is shocking:’ man sentenced for horrific hammer attack against mother in Campbell River

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