AIRDRIE INMATE REFUSES TO QUIT POT

Claims Smoking Marijuana Helps Him Cope With Prison

A violent offender told an Alberta parole board he won't quit smoking
marijuana until he's freed from prison because he uses the drugs as a
way of coping behind bars.

The National Parole Board denied early release for Wade Gunoff, who
has tested positive for drugs at least five times since being
imprisoned in April 2008 for his role in a beating that left a
61-year-old man from Airdrie permanently disabled.

"Throughout the hearing, you were very self-centred and presented as
feeling sorry for yourself," the board wrote in a ruling issued last
week.

"You complained about the many things you had lost since the offence
and that you were 'rotting away' in the institution. You made very
little reference during the hearing with regard to the impact your
offence had on the victim, and generally only when prompted by the
board."

Gunoff, 27, is serving a three-year sentence for the aggravated
assault of Ken Valgardson following a booze-and drug-fuelled Airdrie
house party in October 2006.

Gunoff and four or five other men believed Valgardson had smashed a
friend's windshield. They lured him to a nearby parking lot, where
they began to beat him and delivered several blows to his head.

"The last kick, delivered by you, caused an audible 'crack,' after
which all perpetrators fled," the parole board said.

Valgardson spent a year in hospital with brain injuries, a fractured
skull and several facial fractures. Now 64, Valgardson lives in a care
home, needs constant supervision and has lost short-term memory.

Gunoff is scheduled to be freed from the prison in Drumheller on
statutory release next April.