Assault victim wants answers after man confesses to unsolved beatings

CHEK

WATCH: Beaten and left for dead 10 years ago, a Vancouver Island man is speaking out after a paid RCMP informant confessed to two unsolved violent assaults. April Lawrence reports.

A small scar under Parry Gallagher’s eyebrow is a constant reminder of a vicious beating he survived 10 years ago.

“I had a fractured jaw, bleeding of the brain, I have a metal plate in my head, I had three broken ribs, severe head trauma,” Gallagher said.

The Vancouver Island businessman remembers little about the night of March 8, 2007, when he went out to party with friends at a nightclub in Courtenay.

“As far as I knew I had gone out to the ATM to get some money and get some beer and go back to my friend’s place and I woke up in Jubilee Hospital in Victoria,” he said.

He was airlifted there and spent two weeks in hospital followed by months in recovery, but no one was ever arrested.

Then this week, Gallagher’s friends sent him a CHEK News story about a man named Matthew Holland.

Holland was testifying as a paid police agent in a drug trial last month when he confessed he violently beat two men in the past and left them for dead.

One along the Malahat highway 20 years ago and another at a nightclub in Courtenay.

“It could very well be me,” said Gallagher.

“I was very curious to look into it. I need some closure on this, I want to know what happened to me.”

RCMP say Matthew Holland had told them about the potential murders before he took the witness stand, that they were investigated, but that police couldn’t find any evidence to corroborate his stories.

Michael Mulligan, who was the lawyer that questioned Holland on the stand that day, finds that hard to believe.

“It strikes me as very difficult to understand how those two pieces of information could not be connected. After all, how many unsolved serious beatings of people at bars in Courtenay can there be?” Mulligan questioned.

Parry Gallagher say police never contacted him, but since watching the story has spoken with Comox Valley RCMP and asked them to investigate the potential link between Holland’s confession and his assault.

“A person should have to pay for what they did to me, cause I don’t deserve this,” Gallagher said.

Comox Valley RCMP didn’t return calls for comment.

April LawrenceApril Lawrence

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