Christopher Whittle was arrested on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia after spraying a 14-year-old girl with pepper spray for harassing his partner with homophobic slurs. Whittle says he "snapped", the CBC reports:

Whittle said this was not a planned attack. But he said the girl has been taunting his boyfriend who works at the mall for weeks. Whittle said the slurs began when his partner wore beads from gay pride to work.

"This was happening every few days. She was coming and making comments about him being gay, and basically just taunting him for who he was, calling him a faggot, fruit whatever," Whittle said…"After so much of this going on, and seeing how this affected him – someone you love being tortured in this way, it does something to you. It really does."

Whittle says he had no idea the girl was so young:

"I do regret how I handled it. I could have handled it differently. But at the time I guess I was just so upset with everything that had gone on, that's how I reacted."

Whittle has a court date in late October.