She was stabbed in the head. Her cheek, jaw and eye socket were smashed. She spent two months in a coma and sustained brain damage.

On Monday, a judge ruled that her attacker -- a man who pleaded guilty -- will not spend any more time in jail.

The attack and its aftermath

In September 2005, Marcia Langleib, then 52, was waiting for a metro at the Snowdon station when Peter Nidzielsky, then 27, tried to sexually assault her.

He was severely intoxicated at the time. He slammed her face into a wall and stabbed her in the head. Five people intervened and were attacked as well.

"I'm not allowed to work, I walk slower," Langleib told CTV Montreal earlier this month. "He took out a tooth; he broke my jaw."

Now she sports a scar on her face that winds from the bottom of her left eye down to her chin. She used to work as an esthetician; since the assault she has not been able to concentrate long enough to read a book.

In court

The judge ruled that, in the charges related to Langleib, Nidzielsky will serve two years less a day house arrest with allowances to work his two jobs, attend therapy and other support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Unless he breaks his conditions, he will not go to jail. He has already spent six months in jail prior to sentencing, so it counts as one year spent in jail already.

How the case got to this point

Nidzielsky pleaded guilty almost two years ago to one count of aggravated assault, one count of sexual assault and two counts of assault causing bodily harm.

He was sentenced in two phases: one for the other victims, and Monday, for the assault on Langleib.

That's where critics say the prosecution lost some of its footing.

A year ago, the prosecution asked for two years less a day to be served in the community based on only two lesser charges of the five charges he was facing at the time.

By agreeing with the defence that there should be no jail time for these two lesser offenses and allowing Nidzielsky to begin serving time in the community, it gave the man the opportunity to prove himself.

He used his time between the first and second sentencing to get help for a drug addiction and anger management problems. By the time he was in front of the judge for the second sentencing he appeared as a rehabilitated man.

"You're taking your life in your hands; you showed remorse," said Justice Isabelle Rheault in court. "It won't change much for Mrs. Langleib, but my job is to put everything on a balance."

Therefore, the judge concluded, if two years less a day was good enough then, the sentence should also apply now. However, these charges are the more serious of the lot.

"If he hadn't taken the steps he did since registering his guilty plea, and even before that, namely rehabilitation and steps to curb or stop his usage of narcotics, I suspect the sentence would have been different," said prosecutor Louis Miville-Deschenes, who did not rule out an appeal.

"Vengence is not a principle of justice -- rehabilitation is," said defence lawyer Vincent Montmigny. "Also there is punishment to be given to a delinquent but in this case the judge favoured rehabilitation more than punishment."

Langleib reacts

Langleib was not in court to hear the verdict, but was reached at home later. She was upset with the ruling and surprised he was not given a tougher sentence.

"I feel he should go to jail to be punished for what he did -- not be free!" she said. "And when I was there [in the past] his laywer said he's better now. Yeah. Sure."