A B.C. man who killed his three children should lose the right for escorted outings from his psychiatric hospital, a prosecutor told the B.C. Review Board Thursday.
Allan Schoenborn was convicted but found not criminally responsible for killing his three children, ages 10, eight and five, at his Merritt home in 2008.
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A judge ruled he was experiencing psychosis at the time and since then, Schoenborn has resided in a medium security unit of the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam’s Colony Farm Regional Park.
Schoenborn was granted the ability to apply for brief escorted outings by the three-person review board in November 2017, a ruling Crown counsel has been fighting ever since.
Doctors have yet to approve an application for him to take such an outing.
“I don’t think staff supervised community outings are justified at this point,” Schoenborn’s psychiatrist Dr. Marcel Hediger, told the board at the annual hearing to review his freedom.
When questioned by prosecutor Michelle Booker, Hediger painted Schoenborn as a paranoid, impulsive man still working on controlling his anger and emotions.
‘I will now live in consistent fear’: Allan Schoenborn granted escorted leaves
His attitude has become more positive over the years, Hediger said, but he continues to have “negative interactions” with both patients and employees. They haven’t gotten physical, but staff have had to intervene.
The hospital’s two main concerns are that he has trouble when he feels wronged or disrespected, and he tends to interpret “neutral” comments as negative, he said. His poor impulse control could cause issues on escorted outings.
He is likely to have a negative interaction with someone in public on such an outing, given his notoriety, Hediger said, adding Schoenborn has already had death threats from patients at the hospital.
“I don’t know how he would be able to handle it… it would be a very triggering situation.”
Schoenborn’s lawyer is expected to cross-examine Hediger Thursday afternoon, with a decision from the board expected later.
