Sentence adjusted after appeal

The Ontario Court of Appeal has released its decision on a Hamilton couple convicted of holding a disabled man hostage and torturing him for three weeks.

Last week, CHCH learned that prison sentences would be reduced for Stanley Brown and Dakota Thompson.

Now we know that Brown, the ringleader, had his sentence reduced from 13 years to 7 years and 2 months. Thompson, his girlfriend who also participated in the beatings and burnings, had her sentence reduced from 10 years to 6 years and 8 months. Both offenders also got 32 months credit for time served waiting for sentencing. They were sentenced in 2010, which means both could be out of jail within the next couple of years. The victim’s mother contacted CHCH saying she is horrified by the news. The three appeal court judges said Justice Fred Campling erred by imposing sentences that were almost double the length of prison time requested in a joint submission by the lawyers, without warning the lawyers he was going to do so. Two other people, including a young offender, did not appeal their sentences.