See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

A man who stole a ceremonial gong for cancer patients at a Kitchener hospital has expressed his remorse at his sentencing on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old, whose identity was not released, stole the gong that cancer patients ring when they’ve finished their treatment at the Waterloo Regional Health Network’s (WRHN) Cancer Centre on April 25.

The gong was found by police 10 days later in the Victoria St. N.-Weber St. W. area, which the Waterloo Region Record reported was the location of a homeless encampment where the man lived.

The gong was returned to the hospital.

Speaking to Judge Craig Parry, the man said he was high on drugs at the time of the theft.

“I wasn’t thinking about the significance of the gong when I took it, but after I sobered up, it made me feel pretty sick to know that I had affected the community that way,” the man said, per the Record .

“Just the idea of me stealing from little kids with cancer makes me f—-ing sick,” he added.

During his sentencing, it was revealed that the man has a nine-year-old daughter who does not live with him.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Lawyer speaks of his ‘drug-fuelled crime sprees’

His defence lawyer Stephanie Krug said her client has “drug-fuelled crime sprees,” but “then he has intermittent periods of sobriety” during which he works, engages with his daughter and volunteers.

She compared his struggles with addiction to a “pendulum” in which he’s either “completely out of his mind, stealing things that really have very little value to him, or he is completely devoted to walking the walk and doing the work that it takes to stay clean.”

Krug noted that her client has been to rehab seven times.

The man, who pleaded guilty to theft under $5,000, was sentenced to time served and a year of probation.

He had spent four months in pre-trial custody.

He’s banned from going to the hospital unless he needs medical or psychiatric treatment.

  • Cops recover gong stolen from Kitchener hospital's cancer centre
  • Gong for cancer patients to ring stolen from Kitchener Cancer Centre