British Columbia

Dad 'psychotic' when he killed 3 children: psychiatrist

A psychiatrist says Allan Schoenborn was psychotic when he killed his three children in Merritt, B.C.

A psychiatrist says Allan Schoenborn was psychotic when he killed his three children in Merritt, B.C., in 2008.

Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessy told a first-degree murder trial in Kamloops that Schoenborn believed his children were being sexually abused and the only solution was to kill them and put them in heaven.

O'Shaughnessy — testifying Friday for the defence — said there was evidence going back a decade that Schoenborn had a chronic mental disorder but he often played down his illness and used alcohol to mask it.

A statement was also submitted to the court showing a social worker warned the children's mother, Darcie Clarke, to take action to protect her children after Schoenborn went to his children's school and threatened a girl he accused of bullying his daughter.

Crown psychiatrist to testify

The bodies of 10-year-old Kaitlynne Schoenborn and her younger brothers, Max and Cordon, were found by Clarke in their Merritt home.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Powers is hearing the trial without a jury. If Powers finds that Schoenborn was not of sound mind at the time of the killings, he could be found not guilty and sent to a psychiatric institution instead of prison.

The Crown prosecutor has contended that Schoenborn killed his children as an act of revenge against their mother.

A psychiatrist for the Crown is expected to testify next week.