Rob Ford: Toronto mayor 'paid for attack on ex-brother-in-law'

TORONTO'S controversial mayor Rob Ford is being sued over allegations he paid to have his sister's ex-boyfriend beaten up in jail.

Ford, whose indiscretions include smoking crack cocaine in a "drunken stupor", is being sued for $1m by his sister's former partner, Scott MacIntyre. He alleges that Ford paid a "jailed former [American] football player" from a team once coached by the mayor to assault him in the showers at the Toronto West Detention Centre.

The alleged assault, which took place in March 2012, left MacIntyre with shattered teeth and a broken leg, his lawsuit claims. Court documents filed on Wednesday allege that the assault was orchestrated by Ford and a former football coach called Payman Aboodowleh. It was allegedly designed to "keep MacIntyre quiet about the Toronto mayor's abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs", the Globe and Mail reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The man who allegedly assaulted MacIntyre is Aedan Petros, a "300-pound, violent criminal" who once played defensive tackle for the American football team at Toronto's Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School. Ford and Aboodowleh are both former coaches of the team.

MacIntyre told the Globe and Mail he was attacked after "several weeks of threats" from inmates who urged the 46-year-old repeat offender to "do the right thing" and keep quiet about Ford. "They wanted to know... was I going to keep my mouth shut?" MacIntyre said.

MacIntyre alleges that Petros, who was jailed in connection with an armed robbery and home invasion, repeatedly approached him with warnings, telling him: "There is no use in bringing Rob into this; what's done behind closed doors stays behind closed doors."

Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, told Sky News the allegations made in the lawsuit are "without fact or foundation".