THE PROMISES COMING TRUE –

AUGUST 13, 2021 – A new mom is being encouraged in her efforts to stay sober after assaulting her partner the last time she was intoxicated. 

Lissa Manning pleaded guilty last Friday to assaulting Nikko Biocchi at their Queen Street East residence on Dec, 14, 2020 and not keeping the peace. 

Biocchi confronted Manning about her recent alcohol relapse when she came home “heavily intoxicated,” assistant Crown attorney Marie-Eve Talbot told Ontario Court Justice John Condon during an online hearing. 

Manning spit in Biocchi’s face twice, pulled his hair and punched him in the head with a closed fist. She was on a probation order to keep the peace and be of good behaviour. Manning had been earlier released on an undertaking. 

Talbot and defense counsel Blair Hagan submitted a joint position that Manning be given a conditional sentence of four months followed by 12 months of probation. 

She must be at her residence between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., cannot bother Biocchi and must attend any assigned counselling. Manning cannot buy, possess or consume alcohol. Her probation includes giving a DNA sample and not possessing weapons for two years. 

Manning has “made some remarkable changes in her life” in recent months and has not consumed alcohol since the December assault, said Hagan. 

“I think she should be commended for those changes,” she told the court. A letter from Manning’s probation officer notes she is doing “exceptionally well.” Manning is attending Breton House’s A New Link program for new mothers dealing with substance use after giving birth to a “healthy baby boy” in late June. 

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