MONTREAL — The former Quebec cardiologist accused of killing his two children has been granted bail in the lead up to his second trial.
A judge granted him a conditional release pending his murder trial, which is set to start in September 2015.
Turcotte was found not criminally responsible for the murder of his two young children during his first trial.
He made the request for bail, pleading his case at the courthouse in St-Jérôme, Que. last week.
Watch: Turcotte testifies at bail hearing
He said that he wanted to be released so that he could care for his family and take on volunteer work at a food bank on Montreal’s South Shore.
Turcotte claimed that since being in prison in the medical wing of the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre, he has been harassed and threatened, which caused him to suffer from depression.
In a controversial verdict in 2011, he was found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder for the 2009 stabbing deaths of his two young children.
Watch: Global’s Domenic Fazioli shares insight into the Turcotte trial
In December 2012, Turcotte was released after 46 months of detention in a prison and eventually a psychiatric institution.
The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the verdict last November and ordered a new trial, leading to his re-arrest.
In the initial trial, court was told his five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter were stabbed 46 times as they lay in their beds.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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