The man accused of breaking into an Oak Bay home and attacking a woman with a machete eight years ago pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and breaking-and-entering Wednesday in connection with the incident.

On the morning of April 25, 2017, Kaspar Handspiker, 32, broke into a home in the 2500 block of the Willows Beach Esplanade, where Nermeen Alireza was asleep. The woman awoke to noises in the kitchen, where Handspiker had picked up her purse. Alireza investigated, and during a struggle over the purse, Handspiker struck the woman several times with a machete, causing injuries to Alireza's arm and hand that would require surgery.

As violence unfolded inside the beachfront home, Christopher Sloan Standell, 55, was inside a car parked nearby. That morning, Handspiker had picked Standell

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