Troy Kenneth Bellefontaine, 36, will appear in Spring Garden Road Provincial Court this morning to face three people charged in connection with a downtown 2012 robbery that left him bleeding from the head and in need of some 15 staples to close three separate head wounds.

 

Officers from the Halifax Regional Police Department responded to the 1900 block of Brunswick Street May 24 in response to an early-morning “trouble call.”

 

Interviewed about the incident for Gay Guide Halifax last year, Troy explained that he’d been walking along Brunswick Street when he was approached by two young women in their early 20s who asked if they could borrow his cell phone.

 

He said he obliged, only to have the duo flee, taking his phone with them; he quickly followed, demanding it be returned. But when the two young women failed to do so, Troy said he began to yell for someone to call the police.

 

He said someone struck him in the head soon thereafter.

 

The police quickly arrived to find two adult males fleeing the scene. They apprehended and arrested the pair and proceeded to take them into custody.

 

Nineteen-year-old Robert Charles Simmonds and 24-year-old Jakio Lamar Williams were subsequently charged with one charge each of assault causing bodily harm.

 

Those charges have since been withdrawn.

 

Instead, Williams now faces one count of robbery – a charge also levelled against Breagh MacNeil and Fatouma Abdi.

 

Simmons, who is now believed to be living outside Canada and unlikely to return, no longer faces any charges in relation to Troy’s case.

 

The preliminary inquiry is scheduled to get underway around 9:30 this morning.