By JOE WARMINGTON, TORONTO SUN
“I was pleased to get him some water”
— attempted murder victim Ryan Watson
You don’t have to squint to see the scars on Ryan Watson’s throat.
The nasty remnants of the knife is on display for all to see. What you don’t see are the scars inside.
Meanwhile, the guy responsible could be home in time to enjoy the NHL playoffs. It’s Ontario justice where a man, for a reason not known to anyone, smashed a completely innocent neighbour over the head, stabbed the 32-year-old airline pilot in the neck and all he gets is two-years-less-a-day in jail.
And to think all of this over a simple glass of water!
It started on a hot day last August with the request for the most basic human need.
“I was thirsty too,” said Watson Monday, who “recognized” fellow Port Hope resident Thomas Tollett from a wedding and “invited him in”.
Being neighbourly, Watson retrieved two cold bottles from his fridge. There was no thank you.
“When I turned, all I felt was something being smashed over my head,” said Watson. “It was a piece of ceramic, maybe a candle holder, which shattered into a million pieces”.
Dove on him
He fell and his guest dove on top of him.
“I just remember him stabbing me in the throat — twice,” said Watson, who said he was in a state of shock and writhing in pain.
He started calling out for help but his spouse Courtney was out. Fearing for his life, Watson managed to bite Tollett on the finger and elude his attacker. Yelling “I don’t want to die” — while bleeding profusely — he went to neighbours’ Beverly and Stanley Kostoff, 71 and 79-years-old.
“It was like a horror movie,” said Watson.
And the nightmare was not over. “I shut the door but he broke it down,” he said. “Telling me he is going to kill me he jumped on me and started punching me”.
Tollett also hit his two elderly neighbours over the head with a wooden paddle, before stabbing the woman in the abdomen with a piece that had splintered off, he said.
Thankfully, help arrived in the nick of time. The man was arrested and Watson was rapidly airlifted to St. Michael’s Hospital where he underwent six hours of surgery to save his life.
If you are not already sufficiently outraged, stay tuned. How much time did Tollett get? You figure 25 years? 20? 15? 10? Five?
No, 60-year-old retired teacher and local theatre actor, after pleading guilty to attempted murder, was sentenced Friday in Cobourg Court to serve two-years-less-a-day on top of the six months he has already served. He was also handed three years probation and an order to not come any closer than 300 metres from his victims.
Meaningless
“Unbelievable,” said Tory house leader Bob Runciman, a former solicitor general. “If anyone wonders about the need for limiting judicial discretion, this case should dispel all doubt. At very least, the judge should have required electronic monitoring. Simply giving him a 300 metre prohibition is meaningless”.
“What it really means is three months,” adds Joe Wamback, founder of the Canadian Crime Victim Foundation. “He will have dealt with the repercussions of this faster than Mr. Watson will”.
As QMI Agency reporter Cecilia Nasmith reported “the knife punctured (Watson’s) trachea through the front and out the back, cutting into his esophagus” and he was “hospitalized for 14 days where he could not speak, eat or drink” and “went from a healthy, active man who enjoyed life to a skinny, fearful one who has still not been able to return to work”.
Watson gave an emotional impact statement but the poor elderly couple were too afraid — knowing our lame justice system, a weak crown attorney and seemingly gutless judge would not be there to protect them when this violent piece of scum is let back into their neighbourhood by the Stanley Cup finals or sooner.
Said Justice Rhys Morgan: “We can’t leave this without noting that Mrs. Tollett, in her letter, addresses her concern for Mr. Watson”.
Who the hell cares what she says? Did he not hear what the victim said? Disgraceful.
Hockey players giving an elbow on the ice seem to get tougher sentences. Sickeningly, the judge talked of Tollett as a “loving husband and father, a good provider to his family” and “someone who enjoyed the respect of colleagues, his standing in the community as a teacher who holds two degrees and was enjoying retirement”.
Free to roam
But would Judge Morgan invite Thomas Tollett into his chambers for a glass of water without court security? Tollett will be free to roam as he pleases in no time and we don’t even know what he looks like.
As for why this happened, unproven theories included narcissism, possible early dementia and anger management. The best excuse came from defence lawyer Gary McNeely who suggested his client suffered with held- over frustration from being called Mr. Toilet while in high school.
He also pointed out how his client missed out on his birthday party and on getting to do a part in a play.
Who cares what the guy they once called Toilet missed out on? It’s our justice system that is in the toilet while Watson and the Kostoff’s came pretty close to missing out on the rest of their lives.
“I was lucky,” said Watson, who is determined to move on.
He gets back in the cockpit next month and can’t wait. “Air Canada has been unbelievably supportive and I am so fortunate to have a dream job to go back to”.
If ever asked for water again, the kind and generous Ryan says he would do exactly what he did on Aug. 20, 2009: Offer the person some.
Toronto Sun
