New video shows the moments before an armed swordsman attacked his boss at a Toronto bakery
New video has emerged showing the moments before a Toronto man attacked his boss using two samurai swords at a North York bakery – an incident the man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for.
Eden Gidharry was sentenced for slashing the manager, Steven Brain, with the swords and cutting his laptop in half, after claiming that Brain had put a spell on him and was “in his head all night.”
Gidharry pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, but Justice Jane Kelly rejected that and found him guilty of the more serious charge of attempted murder, pointing to threatening statements he made and the “terrifying” nature of the attack.
“Mr. Brain was on the other side of the computer at the time. It would have been terrifying,” Justice Kelly wrote in the judgment.
In the video, obtained by CTV News from the Toronto Superior Court, Gidharry can be seen walking towards the company’s headquarters on Jethro Road on a rainy day in March 2020.
As he approaches, it’s clear he is armed with samurai swords. The video shows he is stopped briefly at a gate before cutting through the mechanism with one of the swords, and then raising them on both sides and walking steadily forward into the facility.
An alarm sounds and employees start to leave the building in a panic. Another video shows Gidharry stalking through the factory floor on his way to meet Brain.
“Using the swords, Mr. Gidharry slashed Mr. Brain, causing significant injuries to the area of his right underarm and his right leg. Mr. Gidharry also swung the sword causing the laptop screen of Mr. Brain’s computer to be split in two,” Justice Kelly wrote.
When police arrived, he put the swords down. In a statement to police, “Mr. Gidharry said, amongst other things, that he had to kill Mr. Brain due to a “spell/curse” and that this suggestion had come to him while he was meditating,” the justice wrote.
The court heard that in the days before the attack, Gidharry attended his manager’s office, distraught, angry and unsettled. He believed other employees were asking about his personal life. The meetings appeared to resolve the problem, but Gidharry returned.
Gidharry refused to answer questions to diagnose a possible mental illness, but an assessment concluded there was no basis for finding him not criminally responsible.
He apologized in court, saying, “It was never my intent to cause the family any grief or harm to Mr. Brain… it was just a bad time for me. For what it’s worth, I am sorry for it.”
Following the attack, Brain said he could not work at the company anymore, with the court hearing in victim impact statements that the attack had forever changed him and his family.
“Every morning I wake up with these scars on my body and mind. This is not who I was before Mar. 20, 2020. That person is gone forever,” Brain said in his victim impact statement.
A spokesperson for the bakery said the company was trying to move forward after the attack.
Gidharry, 38, is a permanent resident with no criminal record and no history of drug abuse, the judge said.
After the 17-year sentence he is likely to be deported, she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.