Freedom Granted To Man Who Beheaded Bus Passenger In Canada

[Flashermac]

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) -- A Canadian man who was found not criminally responsible for beheading and cannibalizing a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus has been granted his freedom.

 

Manitoba's Criminal Code Review Board announced Friday it has given Will Baker, formerly known as Vince Li, an absolute discharge, meaning he is no longer subject to monitoring.

 

Baker, a diagnosed schizophrenic, killed Tim McLean, a young carnival worker who was a complete stranger to Baker, in 2008. A year later he was found not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

 

McLean's mother, Carol de Delley, has been outspoken against granting Baker freedom, saying there would be no way to ensure he continued to take his medication.

 

She declined comment in a post on Facebook Friday, saying "I have no words."

 

Baker was initially kept in a secure wing of a psychiatric hospital but was given more freedom every year.

 

He has been living on his own in a Winnipeg apartment since November, but was still subject to monitoring to ensure he took his medication.

 

Baker's doctor, Jeffrey Waldman, told the board earlier this week that he is confident Baker will remain on his medication and will continue to work with his treatment team if released. Waldman testified that Baker knows it's the medication that keeps his illness at bay.

 

In a written decision, the review board said it "is of the opinion that the weight of evidence does not substantiate that Mr. Baker poses a significant threat to the safety of the public."

 

Waldman said Baker plans to visit his native China if released but would live in Winnipeg for the next two to three years. He is on the waiting list for a post-secondary training program and plans on establishing a career in the city. Baker emigrated to Canada from China in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen four years ago.

 

Baker sat next to the 22-year-old McLean on the bus after the man smiled at him and asked how he was doing.

Baker said he heard the voice of God telling him to kill the man or "die immediately."

 

He repeatedly stabbed McLean while he fought for his life. As passengers fled the bus, Baker continued stabbing and mutilating the body before he was arrested. He severed McLean's head, displaying it to some of the passengers outside the bus, witnesses said.

 

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1999 that a review board must order an absolute discharge if a person doesn't pose a significant threat to public safety.

 

The ruling added there must be clear evidence of a significant risk to the public for the review board to continue imposing conditions after a person is found not criminally responsible.

 

Opposition Conservative member of Parliament James Bezan also criticized Baker's release. He said earlier in the week it would be an insult to de Delley and McLean's other relatives.

 

Baker's defenders include Chris Summerville, executive director of the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, who has met and worked with him over the years.

 

"He is no longer a violent person," Summerville said. "I will say, yes, he absolutely understands that he has to (take his medication) and has a desire to live a responsible, moral life and never succumb to psychotic episodes and not to hurt anybody ever again."

 

 

 

http://hosted.ap.org...-02-11-11-35-45

[dean]

I'd feel much more comfortable about the government's and Doctor's assurances if they had some skin in the game. If they were held responsible if Mr. baker again heard voices that told him to kill, they might not makes those assurances about him. Second, if I had been on the bus and saw a man stabbing someone, I hope that I would try to stop it, even if it's only with my hands and my Swiss Army knife. It would be hard to live with the knowledge that this happened and I ran off the bus.

[Flashermac]

Claim you're nuts, and you can kill anybody in Canada.

 

Not criminally responsible: Mathew de Grood and 7 other NCR cases

 

 

 

As Matthew de Grood is found not criminally responsible (NCR) in the 2014 killings of five young people, we look at other high-profile cases where the designation was used, some successfully, some not.

 

De Grood pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder despite admitting to killing Lawrence Hong, 27, Joshua Hunter, 23, Kaitlin Perras, 23, Zackariah Rathwell, 21, and ​Jordan Segura, 22, as they celebrated the end of university classes in the early hours of April 15, 2014.

 

...

 

In what is likely Canada's most notorious case of NCR, Vincent Li beheaded Tim McLeanwhile the two passengers were riding a Greyhound bus near Portage la Prairie, Man., in July 2008. Li's attack was unprovoked — he said he heard voices telling him to kill McLean. In an 2012 interview, Li said he had believed he was chosen by God to save people from an alien attack and later understood the voices he heard as schizophrenia. Li, who changed his name to Will Baker, has lived in a halfway house in Winnipeg and is looking for more freedom from the Manitoba Criminal Code Review Board.

 

...

 

[And four more!]

 

 

Trevor Kloschinsky was found not criminally responsible in the beating and strangling death of retired RCMP officer Rod Lazenby in 2012. Court heard that Kloschinsky, who bred dogs, thought Lazenby, who worked as a bylaw officer, was stealing his animals. "He displayed a delusional system that he was being persecuted by a number of agencies and it had been going on for some time," forensic psychiatrist Dr. Sergio Santana testified. "He developed the idea that his victim planned to destroy him financially ... that Lazenby was a corrupt police officer." Kloschinsky was actively psychotic at the time of the killing.

 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...bbing-1.3599964