The assault of an Alberta woman two years ago was horrific.

But even more shocking was the four-year sentence handed her assailant.

The Alberta Court of Appeal tried to right that wrong this week when they almost doubled the offender’s sentence.

But even the 7½-year term imposed on northern Alberta resident Stephen Ralph Potts doesn’t seem to fit the crime.

Potts assaulted his victim, who was not identified in the Court of Appeal ruling, in his home in the small community of Chateh, in the farthest reaches of northwest Alberta.

Impact statement missing

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Justice Randall Ambrose convicted Potts of aggravated assault, rejecting his claim the intoxicated woman showed up at his home already suffering the injuries he was found to have inflicted on her.

But the Peace River-based Alberta Court of Justice judge rejected calls from the Crown for a sentence in the 10- to 12-year range, in part because a victim impact statement filed by the woman could not be found.

As a result, Ambrose reasoned, he could not determine whether the........

© Calgary Herald