B.C. child killer's lawyer walks out of review hearing
The lawyer representing child-killer Allan Schoenborn walked out of his client's annual review hearing Wednesday – abruptly ending proceedings marked by tense exchanges and several outbursts.
Schoenborn has been held at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, B.C., since 2010, when he was found not criminally responsible for killing his 10-year-old daughter and two sons, aged five and eight.
Wednesday's hearing was meant to determine whether Schoenborn would remain in treatment for another 12 months, or be granted conditional or full discharge.
That decision was never made.
Attorney Rishi Gill said he decided to leave after the board chair did not grant an adjournment and because of the questions and comments made by members of the board. He also said his client was not seeking any changes to his current privileges at the hospital, where the director has been granted discretion to allow him up to 28 days of overnight leave.
"Nobody is ever going to get over the horror of what happened in the past," Gill said.
“We didn't feel it was appropriate to continue to deal with this particular board at this time. It does not help matters to be subjected to some of the things that were happening in that room today," he also told reporters.
The proceedings appeared to begin respectfully, with all parties agreeing that Schoenborn “remains a significant threat to the safety of the public.”
Schoenborn sat quietly and listened attentively as things got underway.
But when the board asked a psychiatrist about his potential behaviour around children and whether he presented a danger, Schoenborn raised his voice and the hearing began to go off the rails.
“This is bulls**t,” he yelled, among more profane language. “If a child’s on a train, I have to get off?”
Gill said he is still counsel for Schoenborn but that another lawyer will represent him when the board reschedules the hearing.
Schoenborn has also legally changed his name and is asking for it not to be published in any future board decisions. That matter was also not settled by the end of Wednesday's proceedings.
Darcie Clarke, the children's mother, died in 2019. Her brother Mike says what Schoenborn did to his niece and nephews – Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon – still haunts him.
"It's pretty hard on me. I think about it every other day, about where my sister's children would be today," he said. “They would all be young adults now."
Schoenborn was diagnosed with delusional disorder and told his B.C. Supreme Court trial he stabbed and smothered his children in 2008 to protect them from an imagined threat of sexual abuse.
No date has been set for the rescheduled review board hearing.
With files from The Canadian Press
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Hackers release corporate data stolen from London Drugs
Retailer London Drugs says cybercriminals who stole files from its corporate head office last month have released some of the data after it refused to pay a ransom.
Toronto man falls off his chair after seeing $70M Lotto Max win in his bank account
A Toronto man who won $70 million in a recent Lotto Max draw literally fell off his chair when he saw the funds in his bank account.
Montreal-area high school students protest 'sexist' dress code
Approximately 50 Montreal-area students — the vast majority of them female — were suspended Wednesday after their school deemed the shorts they were wearing were too short. On Thursday, several students staged a walk-out to protest what they believe is a "sexist" dress code that unfairly targets girls.
'Looking over our shoulders': A killing looms large in a little B.C. town
Something shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.C., after Tatjana Stefanski vanished. It used to be the sort of place where parents let their kids roam free or play in the local creek, but everything has changed.
What is 'slapped cheek disease' and should parents be concerned?
Despite its rough name, experts say most cases of 'slapped cheek disease' are mild and not a cause for concern.
Unknown Newfoundland soldier from the First World War heads back home from France after 100 years
Canadian soldiers and government officials arrived in northeastern France this week for a historic mission: returning an unknown Newfoundland soldier back home.
American Airlines retreats after blaming a 9-year-old for not seeing a hidden camera in a lavatory
American Airlines has distanced itself from a court filing in which the carrier said a nine-year-old girl should have noticed there was a camera taped to the seat of an airplane lavatory.
'I won't stop,' Celine Dion says in trailer for upcoming doc about her health woes
Celine Dion's fans are getting a first glimpse of the superstar's struggle with a rare neurological disorder in an emotional trailer for an upcoming documentary about her career and life.
Rapper Sean Kingston's home raided by SWAT; mother arrested on fraud and theft charges
A SWAT team raided rapper Sean Kingston's rented South Florida mansion on Thursday and arrested his mother on fraud and theft charges that an attorney says stem partly from the installation of a massive TV at the home.