A street preacher who broke a Vancouver man’s leg in a confrontation over an amplified anti-LGBTQ2 sermon in the city’s west end last summer will not serve jail time.
On Friday, Dorre Shepherd Love pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm and was handed a 12-month conditional discharge.
The altercation took place at the intersection of Davie and Thurlow streets, in the city’s gay village, on the evening of Aug. 22, 2020.
In a lawsuit against the city and local police filed earlier this year, Justin Morissette says he approached Love, who he claims was trying to “provoke hostile reaction from members of the LGBTQ community” and “incite general public disorder.”
In the claim, he says he asked Love to turn the volume down on his loudspeaker, and when Love refused, he says he tried to turn the volume down himself and was shoved, leading to the broken leg.
“He put his leg behind my left leg and then, with me still locked in a full nelson, wrenched my body against his leg until my leg snapped,” Morissette told Global News at the time.
In a video posted to his YouTube account after the incident, Love said he hadn’t been preaching “against the gays” and alleged he was actually the one who was robbed and assaulted, and that “the police arrested the Christians.”