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KITCHENER — A Kitchener man made sinister comments as he strangled his mom.

“I’ve done this three times to other people,” he told her. “It’s really good to see the light in your eyes fade. You don’t know me, do you, mother?”

The man — previously convicted of assault causing bodily harm for strangling his girlfriend twice — attacked his mother on May 31, 2020, in their Kitchener apartment.

High on crystal methamphetamine and believing his dog had been put up for sale online by his cousin, he became irate.

Over a four-hour stretch starting at 2 a.m., the man forcibly confined his mother, strangled her twice and struck her in the head 20 times.

At St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener, his mother was diagnosed with a brain bleed.

When it worsened, she was taken by ambulance to Hamilton General Hospital and underwent an emergency “twist drill craniostomy” — brain surgery — to relieve pressure on her brain caused by the bleeding.

In Kitchener court on Friday, the woman said she forgives her son and hopes he gets help to quit drugs. After apologizing to his mom and saying he feels ashamed, he was sentenced to six years in prison.

Weighing 275 pounds and standing six feet nine inches tall, the man, 33 at the time, towered over his mother, who was 58 and is of a “diminutive stature,” court was told.

While strangling her with his right hand, he told his mother that if she spoke, he would use pliers on her tongue.

He also whipped her with a power-bar cord while she was curled up on a couch, and threatened to torture and kill her cat.

At one point he demanded she write him a $40,000 cheque from her Registered Disability Savings Plan or return his dog.

His mother had given the dog to his cousin when her son was in jail awaiting an appeal of convictions for strangling his girlfriend. He attacked his mother while she was his surety after getting bail.

The man repeatedly told his mom, “I want to cut you up and put you in the freezer.” He spat on her three times.

His mother escaped at 6:15 a.m. and called 911 from a neighbour’s apartment.

Six months later, while under orders to not contact his mother, he called her from jail and convinced her to transfer $5,000 to a lawyer who represented him.

The man pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, assault by strangulation, assault with a weapon, forcible confinement, extortion, threatening to kill an animal and breaking court orders.

Superior Court Justice Catrina Braid agreed to a recommendation from defence lawyer Jeffrey Garland and Crown prosecutor Katherine Enns for a six-year prison sentence, minus time served. He got credit for pleading guilty, a sign of remorse.

The man will have access to drug treatment programs in prison.

His mother was plagued by flashbacks and nightmares, court was told. She went through extensive rehabilitation.

“She still has issues,” the judge said. “By 9 p.m. each day, she says that she speaks garble.”

The man, now 36, asked the judge if he can contact his mother while in prison. Braid said he can.

“I see that (your mother) is clapping her hands,” the judge said. “I think she’s quite excited to have contact with you.”

Braid said she wishes the woman “the best of luck in restoring a healthy relationship with your son.”

The judge told her son: “Your mother clearly loves you. I hope that you will do whatever you can to also restore that relationship and work on having a better relationship with her in the future.”

He replied, “I will, your honour.”

The man was previously sentenced to 23 months in jail after being convicted of two counts of assault causing bodily harm for attacking his girlfriend twice in their Kitchener apartment in 2018.

The trial was told he “strangled her with his hands to the point where she became unconscious and urinated herself,” Superior Court Justice Gerry Taylor said in dismissing his appeal in 2021. “She was not sure how long she was unconscious. When she regained consciousness, she had difficulty breathing.”

Four months later, when his girlfriend was pregnant, he put his hand on her throat and squeezed.

“She managed to remove his hand from her throat,” Taylor said. “There was a lot of saliva in her mouth and she was gasping for air. Her chest was painful. She was coughing. She had difficulty swallowing, eating and drinking for a few days.”

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