A psychiatrist has backed away from earlier claims that Allan Schoenborn is ready for escorted leaves into the Tri-Cities after a day of testimony before a British Columbia Review Board hearing.
At the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam — where the man who killed his three children has been held since he was declared not criminally responsible for the murders — a small audience heard testimony of Schoenborn's repeated acts of aggression and concerns that he has not yet learned to control his anger.
Dr. Marcel Hediger, who has treated Schoenborn for several years — and supported community leaves in 2015 — now says the man needs more time to work on anger management and emotional coping.
During questioning by Crown attorney Wendy Dawson, Hediger confirmed that Schoenborn was unable to contain his anger in a conflict over money with an inmate shortly after being granted escorted social leaves in a review board decision in May of 2015 and was twice verbally abusive to staff.
In one instance, he banged on the door of the medicine window and kicked a wall and a garbage can when the nurse didn't immediately respond to his actions.
Last winter, Hediger said, Schoenborn's paranoid delusions returned and he accused the psychiatrist of "colluding with the Crown" because he hadn't been authorized an escorted visit out of the hospital.
It took an increase in medications and more therapy to settle him down, Hediger said, but he eventually returned to "baseline" within about six or seven months.
Recently, Schoenborn has participated in therapy to deal with his anger management issues, but the psychiatrist couldn't be sure whether the efforts were a form of "impression management" in time for this month's review board hearing or because he moved to a new area of the hospital that is less stressful and was responding to treatment.
But the key issue at Wednesday's hearing was whether the current custody order allowing Schoenborn out for escorted two-hour visits into the community should continue, as requested by his counsel Dante Abby and Diane Nielsen.
Dawson, representing the Crown in the case, called for the permission to be discontinued. She also asked Hediger whether Schoenborn would be ready to be let out into the community within the next 12 months.
Hediger said he would need to see evidence that Schoenborn not only understood the theory of anger management, but was able to practice it in stressful situations before allowing him out into the community. As well, Schoenborn would need to continue with the programs in which he has so recently engaged.
"There is progress, but it is slow," he told the review board, later adding that while Schoenborn understands the theory of anger management, he has trouble remembering to use the techniques when he is under stress.
"He really struggles to employ any of the strategies he has cognitively learned."
However, Hediger didn't rule out improvements in the future, agreeing that staff at the facility use the promise of escorted leaves as a way to motivate positive changes in Schoenborn's behaviour.
Wearing a denim shirt and ragged jeans with his bare feet stuck into a pair of plastic sandals, Schoenborn mostly sat with his head looking into his lap although occasionally would jiggle his left leg up and down and once spoke out but his comment was unintelligible.
He will have an opportunity to speak at a later date when the hearing continues.
Dave Texeira, who is representing the family of Darcie Clarke, the mother of Katlynne, Max and Cordon who Schoenborn killed in 2008, said the family is hoping that the escorted visits are revoked by the review board and Schoenborn is encouraged to continue his treatment.
Clarke, who was represented by her brother Michael at the review board hearing, also wants Schoenborn to be declared a high-risk offender by the B.C. Supreme Court, Teixeira said, a designation that would limit Schoenborn's BC Review Board hearings to every three years, instead of annually, and his escorted day passes would be revoked.
"Today is a step," Teixeira said, noting that if all goes as the family wishes, "the family gets peace of mind and he gets a high-risk designation."
