British Columbia man found guilty of attacking prosecutor in courthouse

The man accused of attacking a British Columbia prosecutor a block from Vancouver Provincial Court has been found guilty of assault and battery.

Kenyon Thomas Lavallee stood quietly in a corner of the dock in one of the courthouse’s main courtrooms as Judge Daniel Loucks read his decision via video on July 22.

The prosecutor, whose name is under a publication ban, testified in May that the attack on her on February 2 occurred on her way to work just a block from the courthouse.

She said the attack came out of nowhere and left her face numb.

She was traveling with a colleague and a security officer from the court’s security program.

“This part of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside can be unpredictable and unsafe,” Loucks said.

The prosecutor said she saw the man and he saw her walking east on Cordova Street toward the courthouse at 222 Main Street.

“He rushed at me and punched me in the face with his clenched fist,” she testified.

“I was stunned,” she said. “I put my hand on my face and I was bleeding quite badly. The blood was coming out of my face.”

Loucks said the attacker ran away from the first crime scene, where the prosecutor was curled up on the ground.

As he turned onto Columbia Street, the man encountered another woman, according to Loucks.

“He jumped at her and started screaming nonsense,” Loucks said. “He also hit her several times on the head.”

The victim began screaming and the man was soon arrested. Loucks said the second victim identified the arrested man as the one who attacked her.

The judge said the defense had acknowledged that Lavallee was the aggressor in the second incident.

Loucks said the statements of the prosecutor, the colleague and the security guard were different, but the decisive factor in the conviction was the man’s clothing.

Loucks said the clothing seen in the video of the attack on the prosecutor was the same as that seen in the video of the second attack.

“I am convinced that the person in all three videos is Mr. Lavallee,” Loucks said.

A date for the verdict will now be set in the proceedings.