Child-killer Allan Schoenborn won’t be designated ‘high-risk accused’

The BC Supreme Court has ruled against designating child killer Allan Schoenborn as a “high-risk accused.”

The judge ruled against giving the designation, finding Schoenborn was under psychosis at the time of the brutal killings.

The judge found Schoenborn’s psychosis has been in remission for two years, and that although he has anger issues, he said he was satisfied that Schoenborn’s mental illness was improving and he doesn’t pose enough of a risk of causing grave harm to another person to be declared ‘high risk.’

Schoenborn’s next court appearance in front of a review board will be in November.

Outside the court, family members of Darcie Clarke, the mother of the three children killed, were visibly upset.

Schoenborn’s lawyer Rishi Gill said that his client is a long way from completing his treatment.

“Clearly Mr. Schoenborn has issues, and that’s to put it lightly,” he said.

“Clearly he was also someone who was, and has been for a long time, extremely mentally ill and that’s being dealt with, and clearly his treatment needs have to keep going and it was never argued otherwise by anyone, and I think at the end of the day the court found that was a reasonable position to take.”

‘High-risk accused’

Crown prosecutors have been working to have the high risk accused designation applied to Schoenborn since 2015.

The label was added to the Criminal Code in 2014, and applies to people who have been found Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) of a crime due to psychological reasons.

BACKGROUND: Crown applies to have B.C. child-killer Allan Schoenborn deemed ‘high-risk accused’

The move would lengthen the period between Schoenborn’s review board appearances to as long as three years.

It would also scrap any chance he has of escortedday passess into the the community.

Schoenborn failed in a constitutional challenge of the designation.

To obtain the designation, Crown needed to prove either that Schoenborn was likely to use violence, or that his prior offences were of such a brutal nature that they indicate a risk of grave physical or pyschological harm to others.

Schoenborn stabbed his 10-year-old daughter Kaitlynne and smothered his sons Max and Cordon, eight and five, at the family’s home in Merritt in April 2008.

He was convicted in 2010, but found not criminally responsible because of mental illness.

Since then he has been living at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, better known as Colony Farm, a facility that houses offenders found not mentally fit to stand trial, or not criminally for psychological reasons.

Schoenborn has been facing a review board annually, and in 2015 it granted Colony Farm’s director the discretion to allow him escorted outings into the community. He has yet to go on such a day pass.

In granting the possible outings, the board found while Schoenborn suffered from a delusional disorder and paranoid personality traits, his symptoms have been in remission.

However, Crown prosecutors disagreed, and have been working to have him declared a high risk accused.