Iqaluit man awaits sentence for vicious wife-beating

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Jonah Tikivik used a metal pipe, a pocket-knife and his hands to beat, stab and choke his wife during a brutal six-hour frenzy of uncontrolled violence at their home in Iqaluit, the Nunavut Court of Justice heard last week.

“The fucking bitch deserved it. She was cheating on me,” the man told police afterward, according to a statement of facts read in court April 10 by Crown prosecutor Ken Kehler.
Tikivik, 34, claims he does not remember the Sept. 6 beating, but admits it occurred.

He pleaded guilty to charges of assault causing bodily harm and breach of probation.
Charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and uttering threats were dropped after the Crown accepted Tikivik’s guilty plea.

Kehler called it “a humiliating and degrading attack.”

The woman, who cannot be named because of a publication ban, suffered a broken jaw, a fractured arm, a lacerated vagina, a broken finger, a dislodged tooth, numerous cuts and bruises, and was monitored in hospital for internal injuries.

She was flown to Ottawa for surgery after the attack.

“It’s remarkable there were no long-term injuries,” Kehler said in court.

The facts in the case are so disturbing that all evidence has been sealed from public view at the Crown’s request.

The attack began after Tikivik and his wife of 12 years went for drinks with a friend on Sept. 6, a police statement says.

When the couple returned home, Tikivik passed out and the woman went out with a friend. She returned a couple of hours later to find Tikivik in a jealous rage.

Tikivik then began a “protracted and lengthy assault” that started at 10 p.m. on Sept. 6 and lasted until 4 a.m. the next morning, Kehler said.

The couple’s three children were not at home.

Tikivik repeatedly kicked, punched and dragged his wife around the house during her six-hour ordeal, the court heard.

At one point, Tikivik grabbed a 45-centimetre metal rod. Before smashing her vagina with the rod, he said “No one is going to touch you down there,” Kehler said in court.

“He kept whacking her on the head and body. She began to bleed quite heavily, and the accused stripped her and took her to the bathroom,” Kehler said.

Without Tikivik knowing, the woman hid the rod under the bed.

The victim originally said Tikivik tried to drown her in a tub of water.

“She was lapsing in and out of consciousness. When she’d come to, he’d start [beating] her again,” Kehler said.

When asked about the drowning later, the woman told Kehler she wasn’t sure what had happened in the bathroom.

But red marks found around her neck are consistent with choking, according to medical records presented by the Crown.

Medical records also suggest that slash wounds on her forearms were consistent with wounds inflicted while putting up her arms to defend against a knife attack.

Only after Tikivik passed out did the naked woman call the police. The woman did not attend court and declined to provide a victim-impact statement.

Tikivik was on probation for an assault charge against another person when he attacked his wife.

Kehler recommended a seven-year jail sentence, but defense lawyer Susan Cooper asked for a three- to four-year sentence.

A three- to four-year sentence might amount to two years less a day after Tikivik’s seven months in remand custody is accounted for.