Brian Louie said he is not the “Hannibal Lecter character” he has been made out to be, despite being found guilty of a brutal assault on a woman.
Judge Meg Shaw found the 34-year-old man guilty of aggravated sexual assault and assault causing bodily harm for the May 20, 2012 incident in Oliver where he bit a woman’s genitals causing a severed artery and beat her up
“This assault could only be described as an incredible betrayal and an act of power, aggression and control that must be condemned in the strongest terms,” said Shaw.
Louie claimed the bite was an accident.
“I’m not a vampire, or a zombie, it was purely accidental,” he said during his testimony on Thursday at the Penticton provincial courthouse.
Louie said he had been on an alcohol-and-cocaine-fuelled binge in the days leading up to the assault and had only caught about five to seven hours of sleep over three days. He said he consumed several grams of cocaine during that time and even in the early morning hours before he assaulted the woman after a party.
“I was getting tired and what works when you’re tired? Cocaine, right?” said Louie.
He said things seemed to be going well with the woman that night, although parts of it were blurry to him, and when the other partygoers left or went to bed the two began to get intimate. Under cross-examination, Crown counsel Vern Frolick questioned if the reason for the assault was jealousy, Louie denied that and stated again it was an accident.
“It was meant to be a playful pinch. I’ve done it before,” he said.
Medical evidence from the Crown showed the injury was definitely a human bite. Louie said he remembers going to kiss the woman after performing oral sex on her and thinking that something was wrong and the woman then “freaking out.”
“I didn’t mean to do that and said it verbally. I’m pretty sure I told her that,” said Louie.
He said the party hostess was lying when she earlier testified she witnessed Louie beating the woman. He denied ever kicking the woman and dragging her down a set of stairs, however, on cross-examination he admitted to defending himself by punching her.
Louie also questioned the court on why there were no photos of his injuries taken, claiming he had scratches, bumps and bruises on his head, neck and arms. Crown counsel suggested that Louie suffered those injuries when he jumped out of a window from a friend’s two-storey house after the assault.
Throughout the trial Louie interrupted his lawyer with outbursts in court, including asking when he was going to get his turn to tell his side of the story. On Thursday, when he got the chance, he proceeded to call the woman a “villain” and “drama queen.” He painted a different picture for himself.
“As much as you want me to be this Hannibal Lecter character, I am actually a good guy and a good father,” said Louie.
Louie has been in custody since being arrested in May. His lawyer asked for a pre-sentence report, psychiatric assessment and Gladue report to be completed before sentencing at a yet-to-be-determined date.