Langley man sentenced after attacking ex-wife and setting house on fire

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LANGLEY (NEWS1130) – A Langley man has been handed ten years in prison after attacking his estranged wife and her daughter, and then setting their home on fire last year.

Andre Richard will get credit for time served so will be behind bars for about eight and a half years.

The judge’s reasoning stated, Richard went to the home with all the tools and a plan.

After the house went up in flames, the man was the subject of a province-wide manhunt before being caught in Invermere.

Sonia Calla, her 14-year-old daughter, and young son managed to escape the house. But Angela Marie MacDougall with Battered Women’s Support Services says the impacts will stay with the victims far longer than Richard is in prison.

“The reality is that he will be released one day and the family, the mother and her children, will have to live with him being released at some point,” she explains. “For any woman that is dealing with an abusive partner and has left and there’s been conviction and sentence, they have to live with the potential threat and the fear for the rest of their lives.”

The court documents show Calla has not been able to go back to work, and has been living off disability payments to support her family.

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