Clinton News Record, 2015-02-11, Page 7Fire destroys
downtown Exeter
building
QMI Agency
Fire gutted a building on Exeter's
Main St. this past Friday.
The blaze gutted much of a
three-storey downtown business
and apartment building that is
about 100 years old.
Huron OPP secured the site Sat-
urday awaiting arrival of investiga-
tors from the Ontario Fire Mar-
shal's office and the Ontario
Provincial Police.
Exeter Fire Chief Andrew Baird
said no one was injured in the
blaze that took 65 firefighters about
eight hours to extinguish. Three
South Huron departments and a
unit from Seaforth fought fire.
The 911 call for the fire was
received at 3:32 p.m. and firefight-
ers were on the scene within six
minutes.
A preliminary damage estimate
has pegged the damage at about
$750,000.
"We are not sure what the con-
tents of the apartments were," said
Baird.
No cause has been determined.
Police had sealed off a section of
the downtown, saying there were
concerns about the stability of the
structure.
Boris Panovski
intends to represent
himself in court
Dave Flaherty
QMI Agency
Accused murderer Boris Panovski
has made it clear he intends to repre-
sent himself in court.
"I know I'm not guilty. I'd like my
trial to start as soon as possible, Pan-
ovski said through a Macedonian
interpreter during a Goderich court
appearance on Monday.
Panovski is charged with the mur-
der of Don Frigo and the attempted
murder of his wife Eva Willer Frigo.
He told the court he has no inter-
est in applying for Legal Aid and
requested that his disclosure be sent
to him.
"I don't want anyone to represent
me," Panovski said.
Laura Grant, Assistant Huron
County Crown Attorney, said they
have asked Bob Richardson, a
Toronto-based lawyer who Panovski
had previously retained, to send the
disclosure to them.
"The Crown is anxious to move
this case forward," Grant said.
Panovski has also requested that
an interpreter be sent to the Elgin -
Middlesex Detention Centre in Lon-
don to help him read the disclosure.
He was ordered to appear in per-
son in Goderich court on Feb. 23.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 • News Record 7
Mitch Vandergunst sentenced to 1 year in jail
QMI Agency
A Stratford Cullitons player placed
his head on the table after he was sen-
tenced Wednesday to a year in jail for
sexually assaulting a woman in 2013.
The family of Mitch Vandergunst
gasped when Justice George Brophy
delivered the sentence in a Goderich
courtroom as about a dozen team-
mates watched.
Two police officers led Vandergunst
out of court while the victim and her
family looked on in silence.
Vandergunst, 20, was convicted of
two counts of sexual assault in October
2014.
In July 2013, Vandergunst, awoman
and the woman's boyfriend spent a
night drinking in a Grand Bend bar.
Vandergunst groped the woman on a
cab ride to Exeter. After arriving at the
boyfriend's home, Vandergunst
entered her room and had unwanted
sexual intercourse with her, court
heard.
He received a one-year sentence for
having forced intercourse with the
:ATISFY YOUR CURIOSITY BY READING YOUR COMMUNITY IAF FADE 1.
woman and a one-month sentence for
groping her, to be served concurrently.
"In my view, his behaviour has to be
denounced in the strongest terms,"
Brophy said. "It cannot go
unsanctioned"
Defence lawyer Dave Reid had
requested the judge impose a condi-
tional sentence andallowVandergunst
to be able to continue to play for the
Cullitons.
The Crown had asked for a sen-
tence of 18 months.
Brophy said Vandergunst's age
and lack of criminal record were mit-
igating factors, but recent rulings by
the Ontario Court of Appeal "signal
that conditional sentences are not
going to be enough to denounce
serious sexual assaults"
Brophy also said he had to con-
sider the psychological harm to the
victim and the fact that having sex
with an unwilling person is an act of
violence.
The woman whose identity is pro-
tected by a court order read an emo-
tional victim impact statement. She
said she never would have imagined
that one night out with her friends
"could bring such destruction to my
life."
The woman said she feels
ashamed, has trouble getting out of
bed some mornings, no longer feels
safe and has difficulty forming new
relationships.
She told the court after the assault
she stopped putting on makeup and
doing her hair in order to not attract
the attention of men.
"I did not ask for this. It is not my
fault," she said. "I will never be the
same person I was"
Reid argued that Vandergunst had
already paid a heavy price as a result
of the convictions. The Cullitons sus-
pended him indefinitely after the
charges against him became known
late last week. Vandergunst plays for-
ward and was in his third season
with the Junior B club. He was an
assistant captain this season.
Vandergunst maintains his inno-
cence, Reid said. Vandergunst has
filed an appeal of his convictions.
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