A Westville man will spend just under a year in prison after pleading guilty to breaking into an elderly woman’s home.
Paul Lavern Whynacht, 53, was sentenced in Pictou provincial court Wednesday on charges of break and enter and breach of probation.
The charges were laid following an incident on Oct. 14, 2017, in New Glasgow when an 84-year-old woman returned home to find him in her home.
Crown attorney Jody McNeill said the woman returned home from grocery shopping and had lay down to watch television in the middle of the afternoon. When she woke to make something to eat a while later, she was sure she saw someone standing on the staircase in her home.
When she screamed, the man took off through the door, slamming it so hard a curtain fell and the locking mechanism broke. The woman said she was 100 per cent sure the man was Whynacht, whom she knows well because he has a court order to stay away from her and her home.
McNeill said Whynacht was convicted a few months before this incident of break and enter and breaching a court order in regard to an offence that involved the victim’s home in May 2017. He was sentenced to a 60-day intermittent sentence followed by 12 months’ probation and one of the conditions was to stay away from the woman.
The Crown said the woman wrote a brief victim-impact statement to the court in which she describes a sense of insecurity and fear following the break-in.
Defence lawyer Doug Lloy said his client has a low intellect and has always worked with his father doing landscaping and handyman work until the father recently died. Whynacht tried to keep the business going, but was unsuccessful.
Lloy said Whynacht is not your typical prisoner because of his low intellect and would endure a prison sentence differently from others. However, while on remand, he has had the support of other prisoners also on remand who have looked out for him. He also has the support of his family and common-law wife.
The Crown and defence submitted a joint sentencing recommendation to the court which was accepted by Judge Del Atwood.
Whynacht was sentenced to two years less a day but was given credit for time served while on remand so his jail time equals 361 days. Once released, he will serve 12 months’ probation and pay $400 in victim surcharge fines. He must also pay $95 in restitution to the woman for repairs to her door.
“Mr. Whynacht is an uncomplicated man who seems to have an inability to say away from (the victim),” said Atwood, adding everyone has the right to privacy and security in their own home.
