Ex-U.K. soldier sentenced to prison for ‘vicious assault' that killed Winnipeg man in Toronto bar

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

TORONTO — A former British soldier who delivered three lethal elbows to the head of a Winnipeg entrepreneur in a Toronto bar was sentenced to four years and three months in prison Tuesday.
'This was a vicious assault with tragic consequences,' Superior Court Justice Katherine Corrick said during sentencing in a downtown Toronto courtroom.
Craig Gibson, 30, was taken into custody late last month. He showed no emotion as he stood up with his arms outstretched, waiting to be handcuffed and taken back to prison.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Brett Sheffield
On Aug. 28, 2023, Gibson, then a corporal with the British Armed Forces, had just completed a reconnaissance competition in Thunder Bay and was in Toronto on his way home to England. Brett Sheffield, 38, and some of his employees from Pilot Mound-based NextGen Drainage Solutions,were in Toronto on a business trip.
Both men and their friends went to Locals Only Bar on King Street West that night. Surveillance footage showed the two groups interacting good-naturedly with each other while consuming copious amounts of alcohol. A disagreement arose, however, and after heated words, Gibson elbowed Sheffield three times in the head.
Officers responded to the incident at 11:25 p.m. that night and 'life-saving measures were commenced on scene,' but the victim died two days later in hospital, the Toronto Police Service said at the time.
A Toronto jury convicted Gibson of manslaughter in December, rejecting his testimony that he was acting in self-defence because he believed Sheffield was carrying a knife.
The judge said Tuesday that what happened that evening was not 'a one-punch manslaughter,' nor a bar fight. Gibson struck Sheffield 'without warning' and had to be pulled away by others.
She called Gibson 'a strong and powerful man.' He testified he grew up in a rough part of Scotland 'where you did not make it through school if you did not know how to handle yourself. And he knew how to handle himself.'
He had been living in England with his fiancée and infant daughter while on bail. When he was 21, Gibson joined the British army and served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Kosovo.
While Gibson was dishonourably discharged, his British Army superiors submitted letters of support to the court.
They described him as a disciplined, dependable soldier who has acted as an instructor and mentor to junior colleagues. As a result of the conviction and sentence, he has lost any chance of realizing his lifelong goal of serving as a member of the SAS, an elite special forces unit in the British army.
There is no minimum sentence for manslaughter, and the maximum is life imprisonment.
Prosecutors had asked for a six-and-a-half-year sentence. Defence lawyers recommended a sentence of between two and three years.
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Corrick also addressed the impact Sheffield's death has had on his loved ones, 'who continue to struggle with profound grief and the immense hole that's been left in their lives.'
During the sentencing hearing last month, Sheffield was described in victim impact statements as a successful entrepreneur who was gentle, compassionate and generous, the kind of person who would take a homeless man to a restaurant and buy him coffee and pie.
His 96-year-old grandmother wrote the family 'will never get over his tragic, cruel, unnecessary death.'
Sheffield's fiancée wrote that not only has she lost her best friend, lover and confidant, but her two children have been robbed of their hero.
— Toronto Star