Bryan Lamb’s trial got underway Monday morning in Penticton Provincial Court with testimony from the 10-year-old boy who was assaulted at the Kaleden park last August.
Attending his trial in person, Lamb, 52, told the court that he pleads not guilty to the two counts of assault in connection to attacks on a four-year-old and 10-year-old boy at Kaleden park Aug. 25, 2020.
Accompanied by a Penticton victim service worker and her support dog Calypso at the boy’s side, along with his mom, the boy testified that he went to Kaleden park and beach with his friend and his friend’s four year old brother and their parents on that afternoon.
As a resident of Kaleden, the boy spent many summer days at the beach and park there.
There were other friends at the park as well that day. They all gathered to hang out and talk at the basketball court when the 10-year-old boy said a man showed up right beside him.
“The man said something about a man in a wheelchair. He was talking loudly. I stood there. I felt scared,” said the boy. The boy told the court that he didn’t say anything to the man.
“He grabbed my neck hard and with his other hand he slapped me on my cheek once. He hit me hard. I ran away to the parents.”
Defense asked the boy if he saw the man approach the four-year-old first. He said he did.
“The man said he wasn’t going to hurt [the four-year-old]. Do you remember that?” The boy responded, ‘yes.’
Testimony from an eye witness, Cory, who was vacationing and saw the altercation, indicated that a man, alleged to be Lamb, first approached the four-year-old boy at the basketball court, grabbing him and then moving on to grabbing the 10-year-old. He appeared ‘agitated’ before he approached the kids, she testified.
She testified that she could see the back of Lamb and the front of the 10-year-old boy. She said the man’s hand raised up ‘two to three times’ at the boy.
Photographs of the 10-year-old and four-year-old were taken the day of the attack by police officers at the scene. Those photographs were submitted into the trial. The 10-year-old went over the pictures of bruising and scratches on his neck and face.
In cross examination of the boy, Lamb’s defense lawyer asked the boy if he was mistaken about a man hitting him in the face. The boy responded, ‘No.’
Several parents witnessed the altercation and chased Lamb down, along with an off-duty officer who held Lamb down until RCMP came to arrest him. Lamb has been in jail ever since.
The off-duty officer will be testifying as well as both the boys parents and some of the kids who were in the basketball court at the time.
The trial continues.
