Schoenborn mentally ill, Crown psychiatrist says

A psychiatrist testifying for the Crown in the trial of Allan Schoenborn surprised a B.C. court Tuesday when he said he agreed with the assessment of the defence psychiatrist that Schoenborn is mentally ill.

Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe said he agreed with Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessey, who testified at the B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops last week that he had diagnosed Schoenborn as having a delusional disorder and, likely, schizophrenia.

Schoenborn, 41, is being tried on three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of his three children in April 2008 in Merritt, B.C. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges but admitted killing his daughter, 10, and two sons, age eight and five.

His lawyer contends Schoenborn was mentally ill at the time.

Psychiatrists brought in by prosecutors and defence lawyers to testify at trials frequently offer opposing diagnoses.

But Lohrasbe told the court Tuesday that Schoenborn does not have the capacity to mislead the psychiatrists who have examined him over the past 18 months.

Mental illness untreated

While he agreed that the defendant was mentally ill, Lohrasbe said it was not possible for him to give the court a confident medical opinion on Schoenborn's state of mind at the time of the killings. He said only Schoenborn himself could know that for sure.

Schoenborn was institutionalized twice in the past, once when he was 18 and again in 1999.

Beyond that, Lohrasbe said, the accused's mental illness has largely gone untreated.

The judge, who is hearing the trial without a jury, must determine guilt or innocence based on whether Schoenborn had a mental disorder at the time of the killings.