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A man charged in an alleged hate-motivated assault at a downtown London park was already wanted by police for another alleged attack with a weapon in June, court records show.
A suspect approached a man who was with his family at Ivey Park, west of York and Thames Streets, around 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 27 and made derogatory comments before assaulting the man, police said. The man had minor injuries that didn’t require medical treatment.
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Investigators determined the assault was hate-motivated and released a photograph of the suspect, who remained at the scene for 20 minutes after the attack before taking off on an e-bike, and asked the public for help identifying him.
Scott Trinacty, 61, was arrested on Halloween and charged with assault.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims, a civil liberties and advocacy organization, said the family targeted is Muslim and condemned the incident, as did Mayor Josh Morgan.
Court records show Trinacty also is charged with assaulting a man with a weapon, a blunt object, and uttering threats to damage property on June 22.
Trinacty was the subject of an arrest warrant for the June charges, police spokesperson Sgt. Sandasha Bough said, and investigators don’t consider the case to be hate-motivated.
Trinacty was released on bail after both he and his surety pledged $500 each. Under his release conditions, Trinacty was ordered not to contact or go near four people, including the two complainants in the cases, not return to Ivey Park or possess any weapons. He returns to court Nov. 28.
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Hate crimes are offences committed against a person or property motivated by hate, bias or prejudice based on real or perceived factors. There’s no specific charge for a hate crime in Canada, but Crown attorneys can prosecute incidents as hate crimes, a factor considered in sentencing.
Hate crimes jumped by nearly 40 per cent last year in London, where police recorded 111 hate- and bias-related crimes, up from 80 the year before and 30 five years earlier, according to a report presented to the city’s police board in April.
Members of the Muslim community were the third-most targeted group, with 29 occurrences – a figure that includes both hate crimes and incidents that are hate-motivated but aren’t considered criminal offences – reported last year, representing a 263 per cent increase, the statistics showed.
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