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Drunk driver handed life sentence in Canada for first time

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-10 11:21

OTTAWA: A Canadian court on Wednesday gave a chronic drunk driver life sentence for killing a person with his minivan, the first time that a drunk driver receives such sentence in the country.

A court in the French-speaking Quebec province announced the sentence for Roger Walsh, 57, who had been convicted for drunk driving 19 times, reports reaching here said Wednesday.

In October 2008, Walsh's minivan run down Anee Khudaverdian, who was traveling in her wheelchair on her 47th birthday.

The mother of a seven-year-old girl was propelled into a ditch after being hit by the minivan.

Walsh was arrested about 10 kilometers from the site where Khudaverdian was hit, a spot where Walsh also ended up in a ditch. He had been binge drinking that night.

In December, Walsh pleaded guilty to hit-and-run causing death, impaired driving causing death, and violating a court order that barred him from drinking. It was the 19th time that he had been convicted for impaired driving.

He also has 114 prior convictions for assault, uttering threats, breaking and entering, as well as theft.

In handing down the sentence, the judge said Walsh was incorrigible and likely to reoffend.

Prosecutors have sought to declare Walsh a dangerous offender, the very worst criminals in Canada who would never get a parole, but the judge rejected that citing unclear legislation.

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Walsh has become the second high-profile drunk driver to be sentenced in Canada after an Alberta judge declared Raymond Charles Yellowknee a long-term offender in sentencing him to more than 20 years in prison for killing a woman and her three children.

Yellowknee, 35, who has 16 years remaining on his sentence with time served, will be supervised for a decade after the completion of his sentence and is banned from ever driving again. His sentence is the longest ever handed down in the country.

Anee Khudaverdian's sister Clara, a montreal sociologist, applauded the court decision on Walsh Wednesday.

"People tend not to perceive impaired driving as a serious crime, but actually "this is a more serious crime, it actually kills more people than guns or knives do. We don't seem to take it seriously," she said.