Access to Maffeo Sutton Park was restricted following a fatal late-night stabbing in early September. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

CHARGES CHANGE

Manslaughter charges applied against two men in connection to fatal Maffeo Sutton Park stabbing

Nov 14, 2022 | 2:07 PM

NANAIMO — A previously laid second-degree murder charge has been downgraded against one accused, while a second man now faces a manslaughter charge, following a fatal September attack on Nanaimo’s waterfront.

The BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) confirmed both Mark Jayden Harrison and Aiden Matthew William Bell are both now charged with singular counts of manslaughter following the death of Fred Parsons at Maffeo Sutton Park.

“Further information received by the BCPS after the initial charge assessment allowed Crown Counsel to conclude that this was the appropriate charge. The earlier information was stayed on November 10,” read a BCPS statement to NanaimoNewsNOW.

Harrison initially faced a murder charge while Bell was originally held on a pair of weapons offences laid days after the incident.

Both men remain in custody ahead of future court appearances.

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Parsons, 29, was attacked late on the evening of Sept. 5 and succumbed to his injuries.

While the maximum penalty for manslaughter in Canada is life in prison, punishment is typically a prison sentence of under 15 years.

The Labour Day weekend attack at the playground at Maffeo Sutton Park was, by all accounts, a random attack which followed what police described as some kind of disagreement between two groups of people.

A week-and-a-half following Parsons’s death the RCMP’s E Division Underway Recovery Team conducted a search of the shoreline not far crime scene as part of their investigation into the stabbing.

Parsons’ death marked the city’s fourth homicide of 2022 in what has been a particularly violent year in Nanaimo.

In February, an employee of the Buzz Coffee House was killed in an apparently random attack just prior to the store opening.

The man accused of the murder, James Carey Turok, was declared fit to stand trial in April and remains in custody.

A woman, 40-year-old Denise Allick died after she was was found in a south Nanaimo home in late June after officers were called for a late night disturbance.

Police quickly apprehended Simon James Baker, 21, who was promptly charged with second degree murder and remains behind bars.

The body of 40-year-old Trevor Lawrence Stross was discovered in the wreckage of a south end house fire in mid-August, which was deemed to be a homicide.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes