Allan Schoenborn appears before B.C. Review Board seeking additional freedoms

Allan Schoenborn appeared before the B.C. Review Board on Thursday to seek additional freedoms. 

Schoenborn was convicted of killing his three children, aged five to 10, in a Merritt, B.C., trailer home in 2008. He was found not criminally responsible for the crime in 2010.

An earlier trial found Schoenborn was experiencing psychosis at the time of the killings and believed he was saving his children from sexual and physical abuse.

He is currently being held at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, B.C., and is allowed escorted visits into the community. In 2017, a B.C. Supreme Court justice ruled he did not meet the criteria for the high-risk accused designation.

Schoenborn's lawyer is asking for limited staff-supported community outings with provisions.

'Mr. Schoenborn is improving'

At the hearing, Dr. Marcel Hediger, Schoenborn's treating physician for the last six years, described his patient's current condition as improved. 

"Mr. Schoenborn is improving and is in a better condition today than he was a year ago," Hediger said.

However, he said Schoenborn should show further improvement before getting staff supported community outings. He noted Schoeborn is not good at identifying emotions in others and one of his coping mechanisms is to go on the offensive.

Hediger suggested Schoeborn might not be able to properly manage himself if a community member recognized him and reacted negatively during a community outing. 

​The BCRB decision has been reserved.