Seers sentenced to 8 years in home invasion case

A St. John's man was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty to being involved in a violent home invasion case and several breaches of probation.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary arrested Rene Seers, 30, days after a home was invaded on MacKenzie Street in the east end of St. John's in April 2009.

A group of men, including Seers, burst into the home after a woman living there had opened the door. A 60-year-old man was beaten and the invaders made threats involving a gun and a hammer.

The crown didn't want the sentence for Seers to begin until a lengthy sentence he's serving for an unrelated robbery was over, but Justice Carl Thompson ruled that the sentence would start immediately.

In sentencing Friday, Justice Carl Thompson called the home invasion "a senseless act," "a wanton, unrestrained exercise of grave violence" and said it was "unacceptable and inexcusable."

Rene Seers is the last of three men sentenced in the 2009 robbery. Stephen Clowe was sentenced to eight years in prison and Gordon Bishop was acquitted in early November.