(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - A man accused of committing a violent home invasion where a terminally ill woman was held at gunpoint and left with a broken nose has launched a lawsuit against the province claiming, among other things, he was 'emotionally traumatized' by an assault in prison.

Robert Christopher Bomba, born 1981, was arrested in in October 2018 after a 59-year-old woman with terminal cancer was tied up and kicked in the face, according to police. They alleged two men armed with handguns forced their way into the Sicamous woman's home while a female suspect waited outside. The victim had two small safes, jewellery and prescription drugs stolen from her home in the incident, police said.

Bomba was arrested by RCMP on Vancouver Island on Oct. 30, 2018, on two outstanding warrants a few days after the home invasion. He was charged with unlawful confinement, disguising his face with an intent to commit an offence, assault causing bodily harm, break and enter, and possession of property more than $5,000. 

He remains in prison while awaiting trial but that wasn't his only time there. Bomba was in custody in November 2017 for an unrelated incident based out of Lillooet and he alleges he was assaulted by another inmate.

On Aug. 15, Bomba filed a notice a claim in B.C. Small Claims Court saying he suffered physical and emotional trauma from the assault at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre by an unnamed prisoner. 

He said he was in protective custody inmate at the time.

“While standing by the front door of living unit D and waiting to go to the gym, the unit officer was securing doors to the cells. Control remotely unlocked the front door I was standing by. Thinking that was the 'all clear' to head to the gym, I exited the unit and came across another inmate from living unit C,” Bomba said in his claim.

The other prisoner was wheeling his meal cart out when he attacked Bomba by punching him in the face several times. Bomba said he defended himself until prison guards intervened.

“After the incident, a correctional supervisor came and tried to get me to sign a paper excusing Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre of any wrongdoing,” he says. “Which I did not sign.”

Bomba said the whole incident left him "physically bruised and emotionally traumatized." He is suing for more than $35,000.

Bomba is due in court Sept. 3 for jury selection on the home invasion case.

None of the parties named in the claim have responded and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

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