The man who stabbed a Victoria woman to death in Nanaimo in 2022 has been deemed not criminally responsible by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
In December, Simon James Baker, 23, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder related to an incident June 20, 2022, on Eighth Street in Nanaimo. According to an agreed statement of facts, Denise Allick, 40, was stabbed to death. Baker, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was suffering from delusions. He was also known to abuse illicit drugs.
Justice Douglas Thompson ruled that Baker was not culpable due to mental disorder at the Nanaimo courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 10. The judge stated two elements must be proven: proof that the accused was suffering from mental disorder at the time of the offence, and that the disorder rendered him incapable of knowing the action was wrong.
Reports by two forensic psychiatrists were conducted as part of the case.
Based on interactions with police and hospital staff and accounts from his family in the months prior to the incident, it was B次元官网网址渃learB次元官网网址 Baker B次元官网网址渨as intermittently psychotic with prominent paranoia,B次元官网网址 Thompson said. Baker believed for several years that he would be attacked in his home and also commented on believing that he had been possessed by a demon.
B次元官网网址淚 think it is rightfully true that this terrible event unfolded within seconds,B次元官网网址 said Thompson. B次元官网网址淚 find that Mr. Baker reacted on impulse rooted in paranoia when he stabbed Ms. Allick, with little, or no, opportunity for rational consideration B次元官网网址 in the immediacy of the moment, I find his perceptions were distorted and he defaulted to the paranoid thoughts that have long been a feature of his schizophrenia.B次元官网网址
At the time of the incident, Thompson stated, Baker was under the care of a psychiatrist and a mental health case worker. He was being treated with anti-psychotic medication and was due for a monthly injection.
He was outside the house, smoking a cigarette and came in contact with Allick, who was not known to him, and Thompson stated that he stabbed her with a knife in the face, shoulder and neck, which severed an artery. He told police he had consumed opiates prior to being arrested.
Baker will be held in custody at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam.
B次元官网网址淚t was a difficult case for all the reasons that the judge mentioned, a real lack of information,B次元官网网址 said Nick Barber, Crown counsel. B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e usually provided with more information about how events unfold.B次元官网网址
Stephen Taylor, defence counsel, had similar thoughts, stating the ruling is the only conclusion that fits the facts.
B次元官网网址淭his whole tragedy is inexplicable unless you look at it through the lens of mental illness, then everything fits into place,B次元官网网址 he said. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 just such a tragedy. The timing is so bad that these strangers had to meet at that moment, when his paranoia and the psychosis was activated and triggered by her arrival.B次元官网网址
BakerB次元官网网址檚 family did not wish to comment.
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