A Niagara man will spend the next two years in a penitentiary for breaking into a co-worker's home and smashing a television on the sleeping woman's head after she rejected his romantic advances.

"It's a chilling offence," Judge Peter Wilkie said Wednesday in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines at the sentencing hearing of Chad Rivet.

"What could be worse for a young woman to be attacked by an intruder in the middle of the night while sleeping? (She) was completely defenceless and completely at the mercy of this man."

At an earlier court appearance, the young woman read her victim impact statement, recalling the terror of being attacked while she slept and how the traumatic experience continues to haunt her.

"No 26-year-old should have to sleep with the light on," she said. "I am terrified of the dark."

On Feb. 17, 2017, court heard, Rivet entered the bedroom of her St. Catharines apartment and threw a heavy, old-style tube television on top of her head.

The terrified woman, blood pouring from a laceration to her head, wrapped herself in a blanket and screamed as she was stomped about the arms and back.

The assault left the victim badly bruised and with a laceration that required several staples to close.

The victim later told police she didn't see the person who attacked her but suspected Rivet.

Rivet and the victim were both employed at a local call centre and the defendant had previously attempted to kiss the woman, who rejected his advances.

Police questioned Rivet after the assault and the 24-year-old denied any involvement in the attack.

Rivet was arrested on an unrelated matter several months before the attack, court heard, and he believed his co-worker was somehow responsible for his arrest.

He sent the woman a series of threatening texts on New Year's Eve such as "snitches get stitches" and "2017 will be the worst year of your life."

Rivet said he was "wasted" on Xanax and alcohol at the time of the brutal assault.

In a pre-sentence report, the 25-year-old said he wanted the victim to feel as "broken and alone and I was."

Defence laywer Sandee Smordin told the judge the assault was a "spontaneous" event and not a pre-meditated attack.

The judge dismissed that version of events, calling it "rubbish."

"This man knew what he was doing. He did it deliberately and he did it with a purpose."

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Blood found near a broken window in the woman's front door was analyzed and sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences.

Police placed Rivet, who did not have a criminal record, under surveillance and were able to recover a cigarette butt after he discarded it.

The DNA on the cigarette was a match to the blood found in the woman's apartment. Rivet was subsequently arrested and charged with break and enter and commit assault.