Sword-Wielding Attacker Gets Lengthy Prison Term

This very nearly ended up being a first-degree murder case. As it is, this man will not see the light of day for a very long time for what he did to the woman he supposedly loved and their unborn child. It is a horrific story of what fear case inspire men to do to women.

Man gets 14 years for sword attack
Victim still suffering effects of assault, loss of unborn son
By SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter Fri. Feb 15 - 5:48 AM
Charlene Knapp can no longer hold or play with her six-year-old daughter. She has gone through several surgeries and faces many more after suffering life-threatening injuries last July when her former boyfriend stabbed her 15 times.
On Thursday, Alan Bryan, the man Ms. Knapp once loved and was supposed to marry, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted murder for stabbing her with a sword in their Dartmouth apartment on July 31.
"She could feel her intestines coming out as she tried to put them back in," Crown attorney Alonzo Wright told Judge Alanna Murphy in Dartmouth provincial court.
"She begged for Alan to call 911."
Mr. Wright asked the judge to sentence Mr. Bryan, 43, to 15 years to life. Defence lawyer Luke Craggs recommended five to six years.
Ms. Knapp, 28, was pregnant with Mr. Bryan’s baby boy when he attacked her and left her for dead in their Lakefront Road apartment. Ms. Knapp had earlier told Mr. Bryan she was leaving him.
"The pain was unbelievable, I felt like I was dying," Ms. Knapp read from her moving victim impact statement in court. "I remember praying to God for my daughter to be OK."
Ms. Knapp suffered a punctured spleen, lung and diaphragm and had several holes in her bowel.
She had to be revived twice before her initial emergency surgery at a Halifax hospital.
The couple had been together for about four months. Ms. Knapp lost the baby shortly after the attack.
"He was terrified of being a bad father . . . and one day he just snapped," Ms. Knapp told reporters after the sentencing. "So the only way he could get rid of the baby was to get rid of both of us."
Mr. Bryan’s diary detailed his plan to kill Ms. Knapp and their unborn child, Mr. Wright said.