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Schoenborn has also legally changed his name and is asking for it not to be published in any future board decisions.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
Police clear pro-Palestinian protesters from Columbia University while clashes break out at UCLA
The pro-Palestinian demonstration that paralyzed Columbia University ended in dramatic fashion, with police carrying riot shields bursting into a building that protesters took over the previous night and making dozens of arrests. On the other side of the country, clashes broke out early Wednesday between duelling groups at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
WATCH Moose strolls through Fredericton
A Fredericton woman is awe-struck after seeing a moose stroll down a city street on Tuesday.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.