Image Credit: RCMP Handout

By Simon Little / Global BC

Allan Schoenborn

Merritt child killer granted unsupervised trips into the community

Mar 13, 2020 | 3:00 PM

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. — For the first time, the B.C. man found not criminally responsible for killing his three children in 2008 has been granted unescorted day trips into the community.

In a decision released on Friday, the B.C. Review Board granted Allan Schoenborn’s request to take short visits outside the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, at the discretion of the hospital’s director.

The decision means Schoenborn will be allowed to apply for unescorted day passes, but it does not guarantee that he will receive them.

Conditions of his temporary unsupervised released are that he is banned from possessing guns or weapons, from using drugs or alcohol other than as directed by a doctor, and from having any contact with the victims’ family.

Dave Teixeira, a spokesperson for the victims’ family, said the decision does not require the hospital to notify the RCMP, the family or the community ahead of the outings. The family does not believe Schoenborn is ready to be allowed out temporarily without supervision and that he is still a threat to others, especially women.

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Schoenborn’s hearing on Thursday marked the first time the public learned that he had already been allowed to take about 20 escorted outings.

The review board also heard that his progress in treatment has been positive, but that he’d had three recent violent episodes involving other inmates.

Schoenborn has been held at the Colony Farm facility since 2010, when he was found not criminally responsible for the 2008 killings of his 10-year-old daughter and two sons aged eight and five in Merritt.

The court ruled he was experiencing psychosis at the time and thought he was saving his children from sexual and physical abuse, though no evidence suggested this was the case.