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By Darrian Matassa-Fung / Global BC

Allan Schoenborn

Review hearing underway for Merritt child killer

Apr 17, 2024 | 11:56 AM

COQUITLAM, B.C. — A review hearing for B.C. child-killer Allan Schoenborn is being held Wednesday morning in Coquitlam.

Schoenborn was found not criminally responsible for killing his three young children 14 years ago.

He stabbed and smothered his 10-year-old daughter and eight- and five-year-old sons in Merritt in April 2008.

Schoenborn was found not criminally responsible in 2010 on a diagnosis of a delusional disorder. At trial, court heard he killed the children because he believed he was protecting them from an imagined threat of sexual abuse.

The hearing is taking place at the psychiatric hospital on Colony Farm Road, where Schoenborn has been held since 2010.

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The man is now in his mid-50s and was granted unescorted overnight leave for up to 28 days in 2022.

This granted leave came after he was previously granted eligibility at the hospital for leave into the community, which was unescorted but not overnight.

Some of the conditions placed on Schoenborn include no non-prescribed drugs or alcohol, no weapons, and no contact with relatives of his victims.

A victims’ rights advocate told Global News that any time Schoenborn has a hearing, it is quite hard on the family of the victims.

Global News has learned Schoenborn and his legal counsel may be trying to block media coverage of his hearings with an application.

“We just don’t know what is going to happen, (the family) is on pins and needles,” victims’ rights advocate Dave Teixeira said.

“This added layer that the child killer, and his lawyer, have put forward these applications to prevent information from getting into the public realm and it is just not a good feeling.”

At this point, it is unclear what Schoenborn and his legal counsel are seeking in this most recent hearing.