Jeremy Bellows was convicted in 2020 for his involvement in a gruesome attack that left the word "rat" carved in the chest of a man who cooperated with police.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/RCMP Handout
June 28, 2023 - 7:00 PM
A man serving time for his part in a 2018 attack that left another man mutilated in Kamloops failed in his bid to overturn his conviction.
Jeremy Bellows is serving a 13-year prison sentence, but he appealed to the province's highest court to challenge that conviction.
He couldn't afford the documents needed to pursue the dismissal, which has been before the BC Court of Appeal since 2021, according to a recent decision.
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"I accept that Mr. Bellows intended to and wanted to appeal from conviction, but he cannot afford to pay for the transcripts necessary to prosecute the appeal. He applied for, but was denied, legal aid, and the refusal was not based on financial reasons," a written June 21 decision from Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon reads.
Two other judges agreed with her that his long-delayed attempt to appeal should be tossed because it's been before the court since November 2021 and because Bellows had a weak case in appealing the conviction to begin with.
Bellows was one of two men convicted in the attack that left Matthew Carstairs scarred with the word "rat" across his chest.
A group of three men broke into his home in August 2018, angry that Carstairs cooperated with a police investigation.
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After a beating from the three men, Carstairs was given three options: to have "rat" burned into his chest, to have it carved, or to have the fingers on one hand cut off.
Carstairs chose the carving and Shane Cameron, a man not convicted alongside Bellows, did the cutting, according to the Court of Appeal decision.
Bellows was given a 13-year sentence in June 2020, but later appealed because he claimed there was insufficient evidence that he was actually there for the mutilation.
"The judge had little difficulty in finding that all members of the group attended Mr. Carstairs’ residence with the intention of executing a vicious assault," Fenlon said.
Bellows and another man, Rick Denis, were convicted in 2020 of both aggravated assault and intimidation of a witness.
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