Alex Kuria/Local Journalism Initiative

A Sarnia man – who jumped bail and went to Montreal – has been sentenced to six years in jail for aggravated assault.

Damien Richard Allison-Harding was 25 when he stabbed a convenience store clerk in 2017. He was sentenced on Monday at the Superior Court of Justice in Sarnia via teleconference.

In November 2017, Allison-Harding stabbed a man at the former 7-Eleven convenience store on Mitton St. in Sarnia, after an argument. The clerk was taken to hospital in critical condition but did recover.

Both the Crown and the defense had requested a term of seven years minus time served, with Justice Joseph M. W. Donohue handing out a six-year term while crediting Allison-Harding for 10 months of time served.

The maximum sentence for aggravated assault is 14 years.

Allison-Harding’s sentence will begin immediately. It also includes a weapons prohibition order, Allison-Harding must provide his DNA for a national data bank, and is prohibited from contacting a number of people, including the victim.

Allison-Harding’s sentencing date was originally scheduled for December 2019, but he fled to Montreal before he was to be sentenced. In February, he was found in Montreal and arrested.