UPDATE: 4:44 p.m. - Stacy Galt told The Tri-City News that she has been informed by Crown Counsel that Allan Schoenborn's request for escorted community access has been denied. The Review Board has yet to confirm their decision publicly.
Child-killer Allan Schoenborn is asking the B.C. Review Board to grant him escorted access to the community, despite the fact that his psychiatric treatment team does not believe he is ready.
Schoenborn has been housed in the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital at Colony Farm since 2010 after being found not criminally responsible for killing his three kids in Merritt in 2008. He told the board that being granted access to the community would help with the progression of his treatment.
"I'd like the opportunity to go outside the gate," he said during Wednesday's hearing. "Maybe have a swim or a cup of coffee."
He said that he has been making progress with his treatment and that he is getting better at controlling his anger issues.
"If it's not [granted] now, it will be never," he said. "I've waited patiently for four years."
However, Schoenborn's doctors are not convinced he is ready to be allowed out in the community, even if it is supervised and only for short periods of time.
Dr. Marcel Hediger, a psychiatrist at the hospital, said the patient continues to have difficulty controlling his anger. He believes that if Schoenborn is provoked by a member of the public, it could trigger a violent response.
Because of his notoriety, Schoenborn has already had problems with other patients in the facility and Hediger believes the issues could be amplified if Schoenborn were granted access to the community.
"Mr. Schoenborn has been subject of negative attention by other patients in the hospital," Hediger said. "The risk of violence to Mr. Schoenborn is quite significant It is a very active issue."
In April 2008, Schoenborn killed his three kids - 10-year-old Kaitlynne, eight-year-old Max and five-year-old Cordon - in ex-wife Darcie Clarke's home. Two years later, he admitted to the killing but pleaded not guilty; he was later found not criminally responsible for his crimes.
Stacy Galt, Clarke's cousin, told reporters outside the hearing that the family fears Schoenborn. She believes that if he were granted access to the community he would escape and harm his ex-wife.
"I was just so nervous," she said of the hearing. "He's the type of person who would just disappear."
At his first review hearing in April 2011, Schoenborn asked to be let out of Colony Farm on day passes so he could go out for coffee and use local recreational facilities.
The B.C. Review Board granted the request but Schoenborn eventually withdrew his application after widespread public outrage. The board said at the time it was unaware that Clarke was living with family in Coquitlam.
More to come
