Former Spitfire Ben Johnson sentenced to 3 years in prison

Former Windsor Spitfire Ben Johnson has been sentenced to threeyears in prison for a sexual assault conviction.

Johnson will be listedwith the sex offender registry for 20 years. Heis also prohibitedfrom owning or possessing weaponsand ammunition for 10 years. Johnson was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of $200.

Johnson's lawyer Patrick Ducharme said an appeal ofthe convictionwill most likely be filed on Wednesday. There is also a possibilitythe sentence will be appealed.

Ducharmesaid Johnson could get full parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence, which is typical in Canada. As well, he said Johnsonbeing on the sex registryis not very meaningful, as the registry is in Canada and Johnson will be living in the U.S.

Court proceedingsbegan withJudge Kirk Munroegoing through the 11 days of the trial. He said the victim struggled to function. Munroe thenread some of the victim impact statements from court proceedings on Monday.

"My family was ripped apart,"Munoresaid as he read from avictim impact statement.

The defence challenged some of what was said by the family in the statement, but Munroe said what was in thatstatement was appropriate.

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Munroe said he wasimpressed by the more than 100 character letters by friends and family for Johnson.

"I don't find Mr. Johnson is a bad person," Munroe said.

Munroe said he was most moved by the letter from Johnson's father and hometown friend.

The Crown asked that Johnson be jailed for three and a half to four years. The maximum is 10 years.

Johnson is now 22 years old,recently marriedwith no kids. He comes from alarge family and raised witha strong religious background in upper Michigan, Munroe said.

He added Johnson is a hard worker and will have little trouble reintegrating into the community.

The defence asked the judge to consider the loss of the NHL contract as he mitigated the sentence. Munroe accepted that, but rejected their consideration for the civil suit.

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The offence had and continues to have impact on the victim and her family, Munroesaid.

"This sir is a very serious offence," Munroe said, adding that the sentence must be sufficient in severity.

"I pray for your peace," Munroesaid."I also pray for the Johnson family.".

Johnson was taken away by police with very little emotion. He did notlook at anyone in the audience before leaving the courtroom.

Johnson was found guilty in September of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl at a downtown nightclub in 2013.

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Five victim impact statements were submitted to the court, with four read aloud.The judge also received a bound book of character references for Johnson.