Review board reserves decision on Schoenborn day parole

NEWS — The B.C. Review Board has reserved its decision on a request from Allan Schoenborn to get day passes from the Port Coquitlam Forensic Psychiatric Hospital where he’s being held.

The application was the subject of a hearing that lasted most of today.

A news report by News1130 in Vancouver says the board has reserved decision on the matter.

There was no indication on when a decision will be made.

Schoenborn admitted killing 10-year-old Kaitlynne, eight-year-old Max and five-year-old Cordon in their Merritt mobile home in April 2008 and was found guilty of first-degree murder but not criminally responsible.

Last year he asked for a transfer to a psychiatric centre in Manitoba but was denied. Two years before that, the review board granted him the possibility of supervised leave from the hospital but Schoenborn later withdrew the request.

According to the Canadian Press, psychiatrist Dr. Marcel Hediger told the board Schoenborn hasn’t suffered from delusional symptoms for three years, but has had angry outbursts as recently as a few days ago when he threatened another patient.

Hediger, said CP, said he was concerned about what could happen if Schoenborn is allowed into the community.

“The main issue at this point is the risk of violence and the risk of a violent incident.”

CBC quoted Dave Teixerira, who speaks for the victim’s family, as saying today that Darcie Clarke, the children’s mother, and her family want Schoenborn to stay where he is.

“That way, for another year, the family will know exactly where he is and does not have the freedoms that he’s denied his three children who he murdered six years ago.”

Teixerira said the family is concerned they would be at risk if Schoenborn was released.

Schoenborn testified at his trial that he killed the children to protect them from an imagined threat of sexual abuse. The Crown, however, argued the killings were the product of jealousy and rage after Clarke left him and moved to Merritt.

Last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced reforms to the laws governing mentally ill offenders, creating a “high-risk” designation that provides for hearings every three years instead of annually, at the review board’s discretion.

Bill C-14, the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, was introduced in Parliament in November.

Some lawyers and mental health professionals oppose the change, but Justice Minister Peter McKay said “our government intends to strike a better balance between the need to protect society against those who pose a significant threat to the public and the need to treat mentally disordered accused persons appropriately and proportionately.” (Globe and Mail)