Owen Sound grapples with manslaughter sentence for U.K. tourist

Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy said he didn’t expect phone calls from the BBC when he got into municipal politics. On Friday, shortly after a judge sentenced the man whose punch led to the death of beloved restaurant owner Sharif Rahman to 3 1⁄2 years in custody, Boddy again became the orator tasked with trying [...]

Article content Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy said he didn’t expect phone calls from the BBC when he got into municipal politics. On Friday, shortly after a judge sentenced the man whose punch led to the death of beloved restaurant owner Sharif Rahman to 3 1⁄2 years in custody, Boddy again became the orator tasked with trying to summarize a community’s grief. Recommended Videos It’s a role he’s taken on several times since August 2023, when Briton Robert Evans Jr., 25, hit Rahman during a dispute over an unpaid bill outside of Rahman’s Curry House restaurant.

At that time, the community was left confused by the beloved community member’s seemingly random death and unknown assailants. It led to what Boddy now calls “a perception error,” with residents placing blame on the boogeymen theories of a crime sparked by homelessness and addiction, or racism. When the police released grainy images of the suspects, white men in casual summer clothing, more speculation ran rampant, including theories that they could be military members in the area for training, likely due to both of them sporting close-cropped haircuts.

In the aftermath, there were lasting tributes to Rahman, support offered to his wife and young daughter, community vigils, and a police investigation that worked away, sometimes frustratingly, in the shadows. “I think the police did a wonderful job. I think they were on top of it quickly, but because they didn’t want to jeopardize the investigation, or what would come to court when it finally came to court, they were careful about what they released,” Boddy said.

That police work and the resulting capture and prosecution of the guilty parties led Owen Sound residents to the bottom line. The murderer wasn’t a drugged-out vagrant, or someone acting out of racism, or a murderer at all. It was a U.K. man who travelled to Canada with his uncle and father — both also charged and convicted for their roles in the incident — who threw a punch, fled the scene, and hid out at home across the Atlantic until captured.

We now know Rahman was propelled backwards because of that punch and hit the back of his head on the sidewalk. He died a week later in a London, Ont. hospital. “This was truly a one-punch case of manslaughter,” the judge in the case said.

After accepting the sentencing suggestion jointly submitted by the lawyers on either side, Evans Jr., with pre-sentence custody factored in, could be out of custody and back home in seven months. When reached by phone on Friday, Boddy called the sentencing a common-sense decision by the judge due to Evans Jr.’s lack of intent to cause death. “Not everyone’s going to be happy with the sentence.

However, justice will be carried out,” Boddy said. “The action was assault, but the person died.” “While Mr. Evans ought to have known he might cause some bodily harm, he certainly did not intend to cause the death of Mr. Rahman.

Nor did he mean to cause bodily harm to him. It is in this context that one must evaluate the gravity of the offence,” Ontario Court Justice Christopher Chorney said during the sentencing. Evans.

Jr. pled guilty to manslaughter in June. Boddy was right. Not everyone was happy with the judge’s decision.

Hafeez Motorwala, the imam of the Owen Sound Muslim Association, called the ruling unjust and unfair. He said that, in his opinion, the sentence should have been stricter to reinforce the rule of law and prevent similar occurrences in the future. “I can have a little quarrel with somebody, and they end up dying, and I will only get three years?”

Motorwala said. “I think it’s a joke.” “I feel like this person needs to pay the price for his actions.”

Motorwala said that the fact that the men were from outside Canada and fled home to try to escape punishment for their actions should have weighed more heavily in the punishment. “Whether you are a local resident or an outsider, a crime is a crime. An action is an action.

If anything, it intensifies or brings more severity to the crime that was committed, because when you’re a guest in somebody’s home you have to behave,” he said. Motorwala’s sentiments have been echoed online since the sentencing ruling was handed down on Friday, on forums like Reddit, where hundreds of people have posted comments discussing the trial in Owen Sound that has captured worldwide attention. Many of those offer harsh condemnation of a sentence deemed too lenient.

John Thomson, who chairs Owen Sound’s police service board, said it wouldn’t be proper for him to comment on the justice system when reached Friday. “I applaud the tireless efforts of the Owen Sound Police Service, the provincial and Canadian police services and international partners like Interpol who successfully tracked these people down and extradited and brought them to face trial here,” he said. “The death of Sharif remains an incredibly profound tragedy for his family, friends, and the entire Owen Sound community.

And our thoughts continue to be with his wife and daughter. Sharif was a very much beloved business owner and respected community member.” In 2024, a year after Rahman’s death downtown, the City of Owen Sound approved a three-year camera pilot program in the River District, which would include installing 17 cameras over two phases.

The cameras are meant to help people feel safe, and, potentially, prevent actions like the punch that led to Rahman’s death. “I think the police services are continuously working with downtown businesses and community partners to reinforce safety measures so a tragedy like this may be preventable in the future,” Thomson said. Boddy, who said he grew up downtown helping out in his father’s clothing store, said he’s seen it all in that time and defends the area, now called the River District, and its reputation.

“We’ve still got a pretty good downtown. Good people are in business downtown, and this was an unfortunate incident caused by somebody not from here,” he said. “Everything we’ve done is to try to give people security and confidence going downtown.”

Boddy, who announced he won’t be running for re-election in the upcoming municipal election, said it’s the community’s coming together and the legacy of Sharif Rahman that he’ll remember, the way he remembers how the city came together when pipes froze in his first term, and how the downtown community supported each other through a rash of arsons years before Rahman’s death. “It’s during these major events where the community comes out and looks after each other that really shows the beauty and the kindness,” he said.