Found not criminally responsible for assaulting his mother, Kirk Darroch attacked a psychiatric ward nurse because he wanted to go to jail.

He got his wish Thursday.

Judge Dale Schille sentenced the 35-year-old Brandon man to four years in prison, noting there was no indication Darroch was in any way delusional during the "vicious and unprovoked" Aug. 4, 2013 attack.

"In my view, the degree of responsibility is high," Schille said. "The prime sentencing consideration is to separate him to protect society ... Rehabilitation is not a material consideration."

Darroch was being held in a locked psychiatric unit at Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg last August when he punched a 58-year-old nurse up to six times in the head. Court heard the woman fell to the floor unconscious after the first two blows and suffered a concussion, bruising and nine chipped teeth.

The woman has not returned to work and continues to suffer memory problems as a result of the attack.

"The unit has been having some problems with Kirk because he doesn't like sharing the TV or bathrooms," the woman told police a week after the attack. "He wants to go back to jail so that he can have his own TV and bathroom."

In a statement to police, Darroch confirmed he "only attacked (the victim) because he wanted to go back to jail."

"This is an act of what I'm going to call instrumental violence, in that it was calculated as a means to an end and that end was to get him back into prison," Crown attorney Geoff Bayly told court at a sentencing hearing earlier this year. The victim "was nothing more than a pawn in the offender's plan to get back into custody."

Darroch has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and, according to a pre-sentence report, has been resistant to efforts to treat him, making him a very high risk to reoffend.

Darroch was being held at Health Sciences Centre after he was found not criminally responsible for a violent attack on his mother in December 2012 and for threatening to kill both his parents.

The NCR finding was overturned on appeal and Darroch was sentenced last month to 18 months time served.

In February 2002, Darroch received a 15-month conditional sentence after he was convicted of operating a meth lab.

Darroch was taken into custody 18 months later when, high on drugs, he stalked a 20-year-old pregnant stranger on a Brandon Street and stabbed her two times in the neck. Police arrested Darroch later that day stalking another woman and in possession of a "rape kit" including a knife, rope, and a condom.

Darroch was convicted of aggravated assault and served every day of a five-year prison sentence before he was released.

dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @deanatwpgsun