The man responsible for the vicious stabbing of two seniors in their Nanaimo home in 2021 has been sentenced to five and a half years behind bars.
It was on Dec. 18, 2021, when then-20-year-old Anthony Nielsen, wearing a mask but still recognizable to the couple, entered their home unannounced and began his vicious attack. He stabbed 67-year-old Rick King and his 68-year-old wife, Barbara, many times.
He also beat Barbara with a baseball bat.
Nielsen was initially charged with attempted murder and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
The court heard Nielsen knew the couple as a neighbour when he was a teen, and they had let him stay in their home for four months, less than a year before the attack.
READ MORE: ‘So much blood’: Details revealed about vicious stabbing of two seniors in their Nanaimo home
On Wednesday, a Provincial Court judge in Nanaimo handed down the five-and-a-half year sentence, minus time served.
The judge said while she recognizes Nielsen’s Indigenous background, his actions were extremely violent and callous and have had long-lasting effects on the victims.
While still impacted by the attack, King said he was OK with the judge’s decision.
“We’ll just carry on, he’s got his life to live, and we’ve got ours,” King explained. “My wife will be sick for the rest of her life with trauma, she’s got trauma, so she’s not the same, but I appreciate what the judge did.”
Nielsen’s defence lawyer, Roberto Alberto, said his client has shown and described his remorse for a long time.
“This is an individual, as you had heard and that were clear, was under the influence of drugs at the time, and so the insightfulness that has come to him by being in custody for all this time is clear,” Alberto said.
Nielsen has been in custody since the offence, so after accounting for time served, he’ll have to spend a further 942 days in prison.
Nielsen was also given a DNA order and a 10-year weapons prohibition order.
He is also banned from having any contact with the victims during his sentence.
With files from CHEK’s Kendall Hanson
Mackenzie Read
