B.C. Review Board considers hospital discretion over Merritt child killer community leave

COQUITLAM, B.C. — The British Columbia Review Board is considering whether a psychiatric hospital director should have the discretion to allow up to 28 days of overnight leave for a man who was found not criminally responsible of killing his three children.

Allan Schoenborn’s lawyer told the board during an annual hearing today that his client has “done nothing but keep a generally positive trajectory” since being granted some level of leave from the hospital, and giving the director the ability to approve overnight leave would not necessarily mean Schoenborn would receive it.

Dr. Robert Lacroix, a psychiatrist at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, said Schoenborn’s progress in treatment has been positive and his psychotic illness is in “complete remission” with a medication he takes monthly.

Lacroix told the three-member panel that Schoenborn would need to have housing and employment if he were granted 28 days of unescorted leave, and he would continue individual counselling and other supportive services.