WARNING: Some details in this story may be disturbing to readers. Discretion is advised.
A former Saskatchewan hockey player has been given a conditional discharge and sentenced to two years of probation, a 10-year firearms prohibition and a $100-fine for his attack on a teen with autism in Surrey, B.C. last year.
Spencer Meyer, who played briefly for the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders between 2011 and 2012, was charged with assault causing bodily harm and two counts of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm in the Jan. 26, 2022 beating.
He pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm — the only charge reflected in his sentencing at Surrey Provincial Court on Friday. Meyer declined to speak with Global News after the hearing.
If he meets the conditions of his discharge, he will not have a criminal record. The judge conveyed at the hearing that he felt Meyer had learned a lesson.
“I’m not happy with the decision. That’s not what I came here to see. For a person that age beating up on a 16-year-old boy with autism — that’s not what I wanted,” said the victim’s father, Mike Chand, outside the courthouse.
“He’s a bully.”
Sahil Chand was 16 years old at the time of the attack, and told Global News he was out for his usual neighbourhood walk when a stranger pulled up in a vehicle, got out and asked him what he was doing. When Sahil told the man he was just out for a walk, he said the man accused him of trying to steal something from the trunk of his car and attacked him.
“He keeps punching me over and over again. He kicks me in the stomach, picks me back up and knocks me down again,” the teen described in a Jan. 28, 2022 interview.
“He picks me back up and then I try to explain myself, and he says, ‘I don’t believe you.’ He puts me on the ground and then he pulls out his phone and starts filming me, and he tells me to admit what I did wrong on camera.”
When the beating was over, Sahil said the attacker threatened to “pull a bullet in the back of my head” if they ever crossed paths again.
Sahil, who has also Asperger syndrome, suffered non-life-threatening facial injuries and said he’ll need some dental work, but felt he was lucky not to have sustained more serious injuries.
“It broke me. It broke me, honestly,” he explained at the time.
“I feel like I’ve lost my faith in humanity as a whole. I feel like I’ve lost my faith in my neighbourhood. I can’t go for walks anymore. I can’t go out. It’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Meyer and Sahil didn’t know each other at the time of the attack. On Jan. 28 last year, Surrey RCMP confirmed it had arrested a suspect in the case and released him on conditions with a future court date.
Sahil has since resumed his walks, but doesn’t go alone.
Outside the courthouse Friday, Chand said he fears Meyer may repeat his violent behaviour and the attack has affected Sahil “long-term.” He bought a bicycle for his son, he added, so he could exercise indoors instead of outdoors.
“My son is still remembering the days and it’s the reason he’s not here … He refused to come because he didn’t want the flashback of what happened. He was counting on his dad to make sure this happens right, and it didn’t,” Chand said.
“I feel that the system has failed us again, failed every parent that’s trying to take care of their kid, every parent of a kid that has a disability.”
Chand said he doesn’t know how he will explain Friday’s outcome to Sahil.
“They gave him a slap on the hand and let him walk away,” he said.
— with files from Neetu Garcha
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