A Vancouver-area police officer described as a "caring young man had over 20 drinks the night he beat a newspaper delivery man, B.C. provincial court has heard."
Griffin Gillan, 25, pleaded guilty Friday to assaulting Phil Khan in the early hours of Jan. 21.
"He's not the person that Mr. Khan had the great misfortune of having to deal with on the night of this offence," defence lawyer David Butcher told the court.
Gillan was with two other police officers from other municipalities when Khan was beaten.
Court has heard the intoxicated officer asked Khan for directions outside a downtown Vancouver hotel.
Khan told the officer "One moment as he put down his stack of newspapers. That's when Gillan attacked him, court heard."
Butcher has asked the judge for a conditional discharge or suspended sentence.
He said the behaviour is completely out of character for Gillan.
Butcher raised other high-profile assault cases in his sentencing argument, noting that former Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi received a conditional discharge for a vicious on-ice attack in 2004 that left Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore with two fractured vertebrae and other injuries.
The Crown is asking for a four- to six-month jail term, followed by a year of probation.
Khan, a 47-year-old native of the Fiji Islands, claims he was also the subject of racial slurs during an unprovoked assault.
Khan has said he was robbed of $200 before passersby intervened.
Vancouver police arrested three off-duty officers, who spent the night in jail before being released, although one of them wasn't charged after police indicated he may have tried to stop the assault.
Gillan was also charged with robbery, but those charges were later stayed.
Const. Jeffrey Klassen of New Westminster police faces a charge of assault.
Khan has not returned to work since the incident and didn't speak to reporters outside court on the advice of his lawyer.
