Sentence has been suspended in the case of a 52-year-old Cornwall area man who threatened to blow up the home of Premier Robert Ghiz.
David William Cudmore was extremely frustrated over delays in processing his claim for employment insurance benefits when he uttered the threat last month to a federal government employee at the Jean Canfield Building in Charlottetown.
Crown Prosecutor John McMillan said Cudmore became upset when the woman in question told him it would be another two weeks before he would receive his first cheque.
That’s when he uttered the following words: “Robert Ghiz is going to get a surprise when I put a bomb under his house.”
Police located Cudmore later that same day and, after interviewing him, transported him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where the attending physician recommended he see a psychiatrist.
Cudmore was then taken to the Hillsborough Hospital where he was involuntarily admitted for a 28-day assessment.
He was released at the end of that stay.
McMillan said the premier was advised of this threat and security measures were put in place.
Defence counsel Thane MacEachern said Cudmore did not intend to carry out his threat.
He said that at the time of this incident Cudmore was under a great deal of stress, stress which had been caused in part by the manner in which he had been treated by someone he worked with at his last place of employment.
Cudmore has undergone counseling and is in a better frame of mind today, it was indicated.
Speaking for himself Cudmore acknowledged that what he had done “wasn’t very nice” and offered his apologies.
He told the court he’d been having a hard time.
The accused had a prior criminal record but the convictions on his record were for alcohol-related driving offences.
Chief Provincial Court Judge John Douglas placed Cudmore on probation for 12 months.
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