Stephen Harper using Allan Schoenborn as pawn, says child killer's lawyer
Lawyer cites campaign ad in bid to challenge Crown's effort to designate Schoenborn 'high risk accused'
The lawyer for Allan Schoenborn, a B.C. man found not criminally responsible for killing his children, says Stephen Harper is wrongly using his client as a pawn in the final days of the federal election campaign.
- Crown seeks 'high risk accused' status for Allan Schoenborn
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Rishi Gill, who represents Schoenborn, expressed concerns Tuesday to a B.C. Supreme Court judge, about a radio advertisement that aired last week in which the Conservative leader describes the man as a criminal.
Gill referenced the contradictory ad as he told the court the fact Harper has commented in an election shows the unique importance of the case.
In the radio ad released last Thursday, Harper states that public safety is the Conservative party's primary concern — but mental health experts responded by saying that treatment, and not imprisonment, is the key.
'High risk accused'
Gill appeared in court only briefly to schedule a hearing where he'll oppose the Crown's attempt to use a new Conservative law to have Schoenborn declared a "high risk accused."
The Crown made the application under the terms of Bill C-14, the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, which created the high risk designation. That bill has since become law.
If the Crown is successful, it could see the mentally ill man indefinitely locked up.
Schoenborn has been held in a psychiatric hospital for treatment since being found not criminally responsible for stabbing his 10-year-old daughter and smothering his eight and five-year-old sons in their Merritt, B.C., home in April 2008.
Last May, the B.C. Review Board granted Schoenborn escorted day passes into the community after his treating psychiatrist testified that he had made progress in anger management.
Under the terms of Bill C-14, an accused would have to wait up to three years between hearings before the board, which grants release to people who have been handed verdicts of not criminally responsible.