A pre-sentence report will play a role in David Wiebe's sentence for the 2005 aggravated assault he was convicted of last March.

On Friday morning in territorial court, Judge Heino Lilles ordered that the report be completed for the Aug. 22 sentencing.

Defence counsel James Van Wart, who said he had only recently taken on the case, argued the report would provide insight into an appropriate sentence.

Wiebe was convicted of aggravated assault against another Whitehorse man, Daryl Hewitt, who was beaten in a downtown apartment building last September.

Hewitt spent eight days in Whitehorse General Hospital following the beating and another four months recovering before going back to work, court heard during the trial.

Pre-sentence reports, such as the one ordered for Wiebe, look at a person's background including his or her past criminal record when considering the sentencing.

With visiting Judge Dennis Overend, who presided over the two-day trial, scheduled to come to the Yukon specifically for Wiebe's sentencing, the report would have to be complete for the Aug. 22 court date.

While Overend had been scheduled to sentence him last March, Wiebe, 38, didn't show up to court after the trial.

Prior to ordering the report Friday morning, Lilles noted that even at the best of times, four weeks are cutting it close to complete a pre-sentence report. With the summer season, a written report could take even longer, he commented.

Lilles then ordered that while the report must be done by Aug. 22, it can be delivered orally rather than prepared in writing.

Van Wart also suggested that further charges Wiebe is facing of escaping and being at large without excuse, failing to comply and failing to appear, be addressed at the Aug. 22 court date as well.

A date was to be set for a preliminary hearing into a charge of breaking out of jail.

Wiebe was arrested earlier this month in Fort Nelson, B.C., after he was discovered missing from the Whitehorse Correctional Centre in June.