Racial attack leads to guilty verdict

Professional motorcycle racer pushed Asian fishermen into water, sparking wild car chase

Gail Swainson Urban Affairs Reporter
The Toronto Star

Published On Wed Dec 16 2009

From: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/739389--racial-attack-leads-to-guilty-verdict

Trevor Middleton will be sentenced in 2010 for aggravated assault, criminal negligence.

A 23-year-old Georgina Township man has been found guilty of aggravated assault and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a racially motivated attack on a group of Asian anglers in 2007.

The incident sparked a wild, early-morning car chase that left a young man permanently brain damaged and in a wheelchair.

An eight-woman, four-man jury found Trevor Middleton guilty on all six charges – two charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and four of aggravated assault at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Middleton, a professional motorcycle racer, was accused of repeatedly ramming his pickup truck into a Honda Civic driven by angler Ruohang Liu after a dispute following a "nip-tipping," a racist term used to describe pushing Asian fishermen into the water.

The incident started after Liu and his friend Charles Hogan were pushed into the water at a popular Sutton-area fishing spot.

Court heard Liu was fishing with Hogan and longtime friends Shayne Berwick and Shiv Kumar at the "Blue Bridge" of Mossington Park.

The family of Berwick – who suffered severe brain damage that has left him in a wheelchair after Middleton ran the car into a tree with his truck – held hands tightly and wept after the decision was read.

Outside the courtroom, Berwick's father, Colin, said the family is gratified with the conviction.

"Now we are just trying to get Shayne back to where he was before," Colin Berwick told a crush of reporters. "But we didn't see the (outcome) being any other way. The evidence was overwhelming."

Brad Lee, spokesman for a group of Asian Canadians, urged Justice Alfred Stong to give Middleton a stiff jail sentence in the hope it will act as a deterrent.

Since 2007, there have been 25 reported attacks on Asian anglers, many on Lake Simcoe, Lee said.

"We are hoping the judge will consider hate crimes as an aggravating factor in sentencing," Lee said.

Middleton's family and his lawyer Gerald Logan declined to comment.

Middleton is due back in court Jan. 4, when a date is scheduled to be set for sentencing.

During the trial, court heard that three truckloads of youths drove to the fishing spot in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, 2007, in anticipation of "nip-tipping."

The four friends and three others were fishing at the Mossington Park bridge when Middleton and his group of 10 to 20 youths arrived in pickup trucks and an SUV.

Witnesses testified Liu and Hogan were pushed into the water after the youths demanded to see their fishing licences.

Following a scuffle between Kumar and one of Middleton's friends, the four anglers piled into Liu's Civic, with Middleton in pursuit.

Court heard a frantic 911 call to the police from Hogan as the Civic was being rammed by the truck. Hogan said two trucks were trying to drive their car into Lake Simcoe.

Middleton testified he chased the vehicle to make a citizen's arrest after his friend was beaten up.

Liu testified that after his vehicle hit a tree and his friends were ejected, he pleaded for Middleton's help, but was refused. Middleton drove off without calling police.

Hogan was thrown from the vehicle into Lake Simcoe. Berwick suffered a fractured skull, a blood clot on the brain, 10 broken ribs and a punctured lung. He spent three months in a coma and is expected to need constant care for the rest of his life.

Colin Berwick said his son, now 26, was three years into his five-year electrician's apprenticeship when he was injured.

His son has no memory of life before the accident, Berwick added.