This made me feel sick to my stomach.

How the hoink does this guy only get 5 years? What is wrong with this system. When a person who has oodles of unpaid parking tickets gets a longer sentence. I mean sure, pay your parking tickets and don't park in dumb places, but should she (a single mother who's probably frickin broke) get a longer sentence than a nut job like this? Kinda makes you wonder what the heck is wrong with the world.



Man handed long-term offender status
Offender describedas borderline psychopath;brother has same status
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Font: * * * * Jana Pruden, Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post
Published: Tuesday, July 18, 2006
REGINA -- A man described as a borderline psychopath has been declared a long-term offender and sentenced to five years in prison for a near-fatal stabbing two years ago.

Maxwell Adrian Goforth, 32, had more than 30 previous convictions -- including several for serious, unprovoked attacks against other people -- when he stabbed a man in a back alley and left him for dead in June 2004.

He was named a long-term offender just months after his brother, Edgar Richard Goforth, was also given the rare designation. Both men are described as serious alcoholics with anti-social personality disorders and violent tendencies.

During Maxwell Goforth's sentencing on Monday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Guy Chicoine said the 2004 stabbing was "a vicious, callous and unwarranted attack," which could easily have turned fatal.

"But for the fact that (the victim) received prompt medical attention . . . Mr. Goforth would probably have faced an even more serious charge," Chicoine said.

Goforth was on parole and missing from a halfway house at the time of the attack. He claimed to have been home with his family at the time the stabbing occurred, but he was found guilty of aggravated assault at trial.

Goforth's past offences include beating a woman and breaking both her arms when she refused to drive him home, and fracturing several bones in another woman's face when she called him a punk. On another occasion, he jumped on a man's head and face while wearing cowboy boots.

As a teenager, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a young girl in his home.

During the long-term offender hearing, Chicoine reviewed the evidence of a psychologist who testified Goforth is a borderline psychopath of at least average intelligence, and is both street smart and amiable. The psychologist said Goforth doesn't express remorse for his victims and doesn't understand the severity of his alcohol problem.

Goforth was sentenced to a total of seven years, minus the two years he has already spent on remand. The prison term will be followed by eight years of supervision in the community.

Goforth's older brother, Edgar, was declared a long-term offender in April. He has more than 100 previous convictions for offences that include beating his wife with a metal coat hanger, firing a rifle into a truck full of people, nearly killing a man in a jailhouse fight and beating his wife inside the correctional centre because she arrived late for a visit. He is appealing the long-term offender designation and sentence.

(REGINA LEADER-POST)

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006