Missing teen’s dad due in court Nov. 10

The father of missing Toronto teen Mariam Makhniashvili is due in court this morning after a Greenwood Avenue couple was stabbed in their home last week.

Vakhtang Makhniashvili was charged with two counts each of aggravated assault and attempted murder. He also violated bail conditions imposed after he posted bail for another alleged knife assault last May.

He appeared in court on Nov. 5 for a bail hearing.

David Langer, 54 and Delores Langer, 51, remain in stable condition after the Nov. 4 incident.

The Makhniashvilis have made the headlines several times since Mariam’s disappearance. Last fall, it was reported that Vakhtang had been charged the previous year with lewd conduct in front of a school in California, where he was working as a philosophy lecturer at the time. This spring, he was charged with assault after an altercation with a neighbour.

Most recently, it was reported that their son, George, had disappeared for an evening, leaving his cell phone unattended in a school locker.

Makhniashvilis’ lawyer, Calvin Barry, was reluctant to talk about his client’s psychological health, but did speak outside the provincial courthouse on Friday.

“A person at the best of times would be under a lot of stress from the fact that the daughter has been missing since September ’09,” Barry said. “That alone would be enough psychiatric problems for the best of us, let alone him.”

Barry also mentioned that a recent addition to the Criminal Code of Canada (Assault Section 516.2) allows the judge to decree that Makhniashvili isn’t allowed to come in contact with his family throughout the proceedings.

“What happened today (is) kind of new to the criminal code,” Barry said. “He’s not allowed to have contact—directly or indirectly—with (his wife and son) even though he’s in custody.”

Barry also said that even though Makhniashvili is on an unspecified medication, his client seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation.

“I’ll have a better snapshot when I talk to him later,” Barry said.

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By: Dan Heyman
Posted: Nov 10 2010 8:25 am
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Filed under: News