Bail delayed for Quebec man accused in acid attack

The man accused of splashinga corrosive substance on Tanya St-Arnauld had his bail hearing postponed in a Longueuil, Que., court.

Nikolas Stefanatos' lawyerwas granted an extension and the bail hearing was pushed to Sept. 12. Stefanatos, 27,will remain incarcerated until then.

His lawyersaid there are no plans to seek a psychiatric evaluation.

Following the weekend attack that took place during a conjugal fight, the 29-year-old St-Arnauld spent the first part of the week in an induced coma, wakening up on Wednesday night. Police say 70 per cent of her body was burned during the early morning assault at a Ste-Catherine Street apartment in Longueuil.

Stefanatos is facing a charge ofaggravated assault.

The woman's brother, 23-year-old Maxime Gosselin, said he wants the courts to treat her assailant harshly.

"I don't know how he feels. I don't know if he feels some remorse about what he did. I'm very angry about what he did to my sister. I'm not going to miss one day, I'm always going to be there and I'm always going to support her," said Gosselin.

Brother wants tough justice

Gosselinwas away camping when he received a call from St-Arnauld's friend. She told him something had happened to his sister.

According to St-Arnauld's friend, the woman was sprayed with ketchup and mustard during a fight. She left to talk to a friend and when she returned, she was splashed with a corrosive product.

"She was suffering, she was yelling," Gosselin said. "They saw her skin literally melt off."

The paint on the apartment wall near the scene bubbled and peeled off from being sprayed with the product.

Gosselin said he "couldn't believe it," but that he was aware Stefanatos and St-Arnauld had a volatile relationship.

"I didn't know something this bad was going to happen, but a week earlier they had some complications and he took away her key in the middle of the parking lot at a hardware store and left her there for six hours," said Gosselin.

Gosselin said his sister told him Stefanatos has doused her in orange juice before leaving her stranded.

"I went there to see if she was OK and she was full of juice, her car was full of it."

St-Arnauld asked her brother to stay in her apartment while she showered in case Stefanatos came back to the apartment.

"She didn't want to be in the shower and be alone if he came in," Gosselin said.

He added that he hopes "justice will take its course" and his sister's attacker will receive a tough sentence.

"I don't want him like six months and he's out. It's not going to fix my sister. She's going to be like that for life. She's going to have some scars for sure," he said.

According to court files, Stefanatos was found guilty of assault in 2006 and sentenced to two years of supervised probation. He was due to make a court appearance on Sept. 10 for failing to comply with probation orders.