For once, convicted workplace harasser Belal Sabir had nothing to say in court.

The 28-year-old London man who unsuccessfully defended himself without a lawyer six months ago, let his lawyer do the talking Monday while he sat silently, sometimes shaking his head in disagreement with the inevitable.

He was on his way to jail, having been sentenced to 18 months. Six months ago, Sabir had been convicted of criminal harassment and use of an imitation firearm, after his kooky trial last September in which he blamed his victim.

In the front row of the courtroom, Jordan Rody, 19, sat with her mom, strong and poised, finally getting to see the man who waged a yearlong campaign of harassment at the Pizza Hut where they worked, sent to jail.

Sabir’s strange behaviour, sparked when the then-17-year-old Rody put the wrong dipping sauces in an order he was delivering, culminated on a harrowing night Aug. 21, 2014, when Sabir followed Rody after she left her former boyfriend’s home, pulled up beside her on Oxford Street and fired a pellet gun at her while she drove.

Even though it had been six months since his convictions — a process in which Sabir resisted a pre-sentence report or hiring a lawyer — he still tried to defer the sentence to April 17 so he could get his affairs in order.

“You’ve had a long time to understand this was coming,” said Superior Court Justice Johanne Morissette when she agreed to a joint sentencing recommendation from the Crown and defence.

At trial, Sabir claimed he was the victim of harassment from Rody, a secondary school student at one of her first part-time jobs. He questioned police tactics and claimed he was home at the time of the shooting.

But Rody gave clear, consistent evidence about Sabir’s campaign of intimidation at work and an eye-witness account of Sabir first trying to run her off the road, then pulling up beside her before the driver’s side window shattered.

Defence lawyer Chris Uwagboe said he had only been Sabir’s lawyer for a short time but Sabir had “a certain level of naivety about the process. . . .“I must admit there is a disconnect I can’t put my finger on,” he said about his client.

“You do not seem to grasp the importance of acknowledging the harm you have caused,” Morissette told him, suggesting Sabir has “a underlying issue that needs to be addressed psychologically.”

Along with the sentence and the probation period, he was ordered to stay away from Rody and not to have weapons for life.

“Most importantly, I want to give discretion to probation to direct you into therapeutic programs,” she said.

Rody watched Sabir be led away. Outside the courtroom, she declined to make any comment.

But she did hug her mom, her eyes filled with tears, relieved it was over.

jsims@postmedia.com

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