The Merritt, B.C. man who killed his children seven years ago has had 13 run-ins with patients and staff at a psychiatric hospital in the last year, a case worker said Thursday.
The case worker spoke at an annual review for convicted child killer Allan Schoenborn, who is seeking supervised day trips into the community despite vocal opposition.
He has been locked up in the Colony Farm Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam since 2010 after being found guilty but not criminally responsible in the April 2008 slayings of his three children; daughter Kaitlynne and sons Max and Cordon.
Schoenborn was asking for escorted day passes to a rec centre, shops and cafés in the Tri-Cities area – where the mother of the slayed children lives.
During the hearing, a case worker for Schoenborn said he has been involved in 13 incidents since his annual review last year.
Ten of those were verbal altercations with the same patient while two were verbal altercations with staff.
In one incident, Schoenborn reportedly chased a patient around a dining room table and shoved him “moderately.”
His case worker confirmed he has anger management issues, especially when people refer to him as a “child killer.”
The cousin of Darcie Clarke, the mother of the deceased children, says Schoenborn has not dealt with his anger issues and should not be released.
“These yearly reviews have just taken a piece out of us every time we have to come here, and we can’t heal,” Stacey Galt told media outside the hearing. “Allan says he didn’t kill his children in anger, and let me tell you, what he did to his children sure seemed like he was angry to me.”
Galt said her cousin is worried that her ex-husband will try to escape if he’s granted the day passes.
“[Darcie] is right to feel threatened by this every year,” Galt said. “His rights are his rights, but our rights are clear. We should be able to walk the streets without fear, we should be able to know that our families are safe and we should be kept safe from people like Allan Schoenborn.”
Relatives aren’t the only ones weighing in on Schoenborn’s potential day trips.
Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore says he’s upset that the community hasn’t been consulted in the process.
“The challenge I have as mayor of one of these communities right next to [the hospital] is nobody lets us know,” Moore said. “They don’t ask us for our input, they don’t ask for our thoughts, they don’t ask us for any of our concerns, it just happens without us knowing about it, so that’s a big concern for us. We have a community that we need to protect.”
Galt said if Schoenborn is granted day passes, she will launch a petition seeking the public’s support “to not allow Allan Schoenborn to be able to walk these streets.”
The hearing was adjourned without a decision Thursday afternoon with no date set for continuation.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim
