Child killer Allan Schoenborn will be back in front of the B.C. Review Board on April 29 for the third day of a hearing on whether he will be allowed to go into the Tri-City community on escorted day passes.
So far, the board has heard from several people involved in Schoenborn's care, including his case manager, psychiatrist and anger management therapist. The hearing will continue so that Crown counsel Wendy Dawson can introduce evidence from an expert on risk assessments.
Last week, Dawson said the expert, Dr. Anton Schweighofer, would testify that there is no verified instrument or test designed to measure the risk of escape and, therefore, any opinion offered by Schoenborn's psychiatrist, Dr. Marcel Hediger, is not based on a particular measurement or expert opinion.
Dawson added that Hediger was relying on the HCR-20, a violence risk assessment tool, but he had not provided a written report of that assessment for the board to consider.
She urged the Review Board to adopt the methods used by the Correctional Service of Canada, which examines an individual's criminal record, convictions for escape, history of non-compliance and the offence for which the person has been convicted to assign a low, medium or high security risk.
But the board questioned the potential relevance of Schweighofer's evidence and why Dawson hadn't provided a summary of the information earlier.
"It's relevant to the issue of the risk Mr. Schoenborn presents to the community versus the opinion offered by Dr. Hediger that it's on the low side," Dawson said, adding she hoped the Review Board would exercise "great caution in using five months of good behaviour" in determining Schoenborn's risk to the public should he be granted day passes.
Schoenborn has been at Coquitlam's Forensic Psychiatric Hospital since 2010, when he was found not criminally responsible for the murders of his three children - 10-year-old Kaitlynne, eight-year-old Max and five-year-old Cordon - in 2008 in Merritt. He fled after the killings and spent about two weeks hiding in the woods before he was caught.
He has consented to remain in the hospital but has requested escorted day passes.
@spayneTC
