Allan Schoenborn, who was found not criminally responsible for the killings of his three children, has been granted escorted leaves into the community while in custody at Colony Farm Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.
The decision of the three-member B.C. Review Board to allow escorted outings was released Friday, following a lengthy and – at times delayed – review, as part of Schoenborn’s rights while at the hospital in Coquitlam.
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Schoenborn murdered his three children in their home in Merritt in 2008, but a judge later ruled he was not criminally responsible for the deaths because he was experiencing psychosis at the time.
In September, Crown announced they would not be appealing the court decision that Schoenborn was not high risk.
Rules included in Schoenborn’s escorted leaves include no direct or indirect contact with Darcie Clarke – the mother of the three children and other close friends and family to Clarke.
But that doesn’t come as closure for her.
In a statement released on her advocacy website, Clarke – who lives in the Tri-Cities area – said the decision brings “no comfort to me.”
“I will now live in consistent fear that he will move ahead with his threats against me, because as he has said, I am ‘unfinished business.'”
A previous approval for day passes in 2011 was reversed after the B.C. Review Board said it was unaware Clarke was living nearby with family in Coquitlam.
Schoenborn’s 2014 application for escorted community day trips was denied after a hospital psychiatrist said he had difficulty controlling his anger and would be at risk in the community due to his notoriety.
But in 2015, the review board granted him short trips into the community supervised by two hospital staff – but never was approved by his doctors to take one.
Psychiatrist Dr. Marcel Hediger told the B.C. Review Board in May he had yet to actually initiate the process to evaluate whether Schoenborn is suitable for a trip when he requests one because the man is still unable to cope with his emotions.
Clarke ended her statement calling on politicians and members of the review board to put the decision into perspective.
“Would you want a triple-child killer to spend time with you or your family in your community? If you answered ‘yes’, you are lying. If you answered, ‘no’, then what are you doing to fix our broken legal and mental health systems?”
