Man who hated women sentenced to life for trying to kill mom, baby in Sudbury, Ont.

SUDBURY, Ont. — A 28-year-old man who tried to kill a baby and her mother out of hatred for women has been sentenced to life in prison.

Justice Karen Lische says Alexander Stavropoulos planned for months to kill a white baby girl in Sudbury, Ont., for “shock value.”

She says he was an admitted so-called “incel” – or involuntary celibate – who hated white women, especially those who were in interracial relationships.

Stavroplous, a white man, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder in January 2020. 

He admitted to waiting in a parking lot for hours on June 3, 2019, until a woman, her baby and her three-year-old daughter – all strangers to him – came out of a craft store that afternoon.

Court heard that he attacked the mother first from behind, stabbing her repeatedly in the neck, and then punched and tried to stab the baby before a bystander intervened.

Another witness, an emergency room doctor, rushed over to help the mother, whose vertebral artery was severed and bleeding out.

If not for those efforts, along with the swift help of paramedics, nurses and doctors, the mother and baby would be dead, the judge said.

“This is an attempt to terrorize a community by committing a crime so shocking that people take note,” Lische said to the court Wednesday during a virtual hearing. 

“Society cannot protect itself from this type of unthinkable and brutally violent crime that is so random and based on such hatred. These crimes have ruined an entire family unit.”

The woman’s and baby’s identity are covered by a publication ban.

The Crown sought a sentence of life in prison, while the defence sought a sentence of 12 years, minus time already spent in custody.

Stavropolous will not be eligible to apply for parole for seven years from the date of his arrest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2021.

The Canadian Press