After spending over three months in pretrial custody, a man charged with punching a Queen’s student was released last week.

Laith Salah, 30, was given 107 days of jail time credit—equivalent to a sentence of five months and 11 days.

Salah pleaded guilty to assault and police obstruction on Sept. 9. He’d also violated a probation order from a Toronto court requiring him to keep the peace.

On a Sunday afternoon last September, Salah was walking west on Wellington Street when he came across two male Queen’s students and punched one of them in the jaw unprovoked. 

The two students didn’t know Salah and contacted the police shortly after the assault.

When police found Salah near the Food Basics on Barrack Street later that day, he refused to remove his hands from his pockets, earning him the obstruction charge.

It was later determined Salah had been homeless at the time of the assault. After a psychiatrist examined him, it was also determined he was experiencing psychosis.

Before his release, Salah underwent a three-day psychiatric assessment in Quinte Detention Centre and a 30-day assessment at Providence Care, an aging, mental health, and rehabilitative care centre in Kingston.

For the 60 days following his assessment at Providence Care, psychiatrists treated Salah with antipsychotic drugs by the order of a judge.

Now released and stabilized, Salah can return home to the Toronto area if he wishes.