

The Canadian Press





MEDICINE HAT, Alta. -- A man in southern Alberta has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to punching and burning a three-year-old boy.

Dustin Stright, who is 30, was sentenced Wednesday after he entered the plea earlier this year to charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and criminal harassment.

Court heard Stright, who is originally from Prince Edward Island, was living with a woman and the boy in Medicine Hat when the assaults occurred over a two-month period last year.

The abuse also included locking the child in a closet for hours at a time, and telling him to eat a tray full of ashes.

The judge says he was moved by the photographic evidence of the abuse, which showed the boy suffered from severe trauma.

The net sentence is 52 months, based on time already spent in custody, and Stright will be eligible for parole after serving half that time.