Toronto van attack killer sentenced to life in prison
Posted June 13, 2022 4:34 pm.
Last Updated June 13, 2022 7:44 pm.
The man responsible for Toronto’s deadly 2018 van attack has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
He has also been sentenced to 20 years for 15 counts of attempted murder, which are to be served concurrently.
The mass murderer was found guilty last year of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
Justice Anne Molloy called the sentencing the elephant in the room.
“Sentence imposed for these murders is a life sentence which means just that. A sentence for this man’s natural life. It is not a 25-year sentence. It is a life sentence,” Molloy said on Monday.
“He will be subject to restrictions forever if he ever gets out of jail.”
RELATED: Heart-wrenching week for families, survivors at van attack sentencing
Eight women and two men died on April 23, 2018, when the man, bent on infamy, angered by women who wouldn’t sleep with him and radicalized in the bowels of the internet, deliberately drove a rented van down a busy sidewalk.
“Every single one of these lives was precious,” Molloy said, choking up, as she delivered her sentence.
“What you said counts, it matters, it matters to me and it will matter to other people who will have to make decisions in the future.”
The 10 people killed in the April rampage were Ji Hun Kim, 22; So He Chung, 22; Anne Marie D’Amico, 30; Andrea Bradden, 33; Chul Min “Eddie” Kang, 45; Renuka Amarasingha, 45; Dorothy Sewell, 80; Geraldine Brady, 83; Munir Najjar, 85; and Mary Elizabeth “Betty” Forsyth, 94.
While the man responsible was found guilty of 10 first-degree murders, another victim, Amaresh Tesfamariam, died last November from injuries sustained in the attack on April 23, 2018.
“You killed her the same way you killed the other people,” Molly said of Tesfamariam’s death.
Court heard dozens of emotional victim impact statements today from those deeply affected by the attack.
Among them was a drawing, submitted by nine-year-old Diyon, who lost his mother, Renuka Amarasinghe, in the tragedy. The sketch, in coloured pencil on lined paper of the sun shining down on the boy and his mother, moved the court to tears.
“It’s lovely,” said Molloy, who wiped away a few tears in the busy courtroom filled with dozens of victims and their families.
“This has been a long journey from that fateful day in 2018. The sheer size and complexity of it made some sort of delay completely unavoidable.”
