Kenneth Fenton, the man who killed RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett in a car accident in April, 2016, and is currently serving a four-year sentence will see an additional 18 months added to his jail time for a separate crime.
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Provincial court judge Lisa Mrojinski gave the sentence in the Duncan courthouse on July 23 that was suggested by Crown council for impaired driving resulting in bodily harm and failing to stop for police in an incident that occurred on May 22, 2016, that sent a female passenger to hospital with serious injuries.
Mrojinski called its a senseless crime that could have been easily avoided.
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“What excuse is there for driving while alcohol is affecting your judgment?” she asked Fenton who was in court wearing orange prison coveralls.
“You were driving while three times the legal limit at a high rate of speed on a narrow, winding road where it’s estimated you were travelling approximately 109 kilometres an hour when you left the road.”
Mrojinski said Fenton had two suspensions for driving while under the influence of alcohol at the time and had killed Beckett in an accident just six weeks before the incident.
“You did not stop driving even when ordered by the police and the passenger in the truck that you were driving and you chose to drive while intoxicated,” she said.
Mrojinski gave credit to Fenton for pleading guilty to the charges and acknowledged that he was committed to rehabilitation while in custody, but considered an 18 month prison sentence appropriate.
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“The damage you have done can’t be undone by this sentence,” she said, while also giving Fenton a five-year driving suspension.
Fenton pleaded guilty last month to impaired driving resulting in bodily harm and failing to stop for police in the May 22 incident.
After a short police chase, a truck was found in a ditch on that day northwest of Victoria.
The truck’s passenger claims Fenton was speeding from the police and driving under the influence when he veered the vehicle, which belonged to the passenger, into a ditch at high speeds.
Fenton also pleaded guilty in May, 2017, to two criminal counts in the death of 32-year-old Beckett.
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Beckett died when the marked police car she was driving was struck by a pickup truck driven by Fenton in the Victoria suburb of Langford.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
