Accused knew he would `morally outrage people,' witness testifies
TORONTO • Just the fact that the Toronto van attack driver craved infamy and notoriety through mass murder is proof he understood the real-world horror and moral magnitude of what he was doing, court heard Friday.
“He is going to morally outrage people — this is part of how he becomes famous, by doing something that people will recognize as a horrible, horrific act,” forensic psychiatrist Dr. Scott Woodside testified Friday.
“You have to do the worst thing to get the most bang.
“It is actually a calculation on his part: What does he need to do to gain the most notoriety, and part of that is do pretty much the worst thing, kill people and kill as many people as possible.
“He has awareness that this is going to have a really negative impact on people around him,” Woodside said. “He wants to become infamous; people have to view this act as particularly horrific.”
Woodside was testifying on behalf of the Crown at the trial of Alek Minassian, who has pleaded not guilty because of a mental disorder to 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder after driving into people with a rented van in 2018.
Woodside presented his case for why Minassian does not qualify for a verdict of not criminally responsible.
Minassian admits he rented a van to commit mass murder, and admits he killed people and tried to kill more. He claims his autism robbed him of feeling empathy and the ability to understand killing is wrong. But Minassian's plea is at odds with the evidence, Woodside said, which includes details Minassian gave to several psychiatrists ahead of the trial.
Woodside said Minassian had been thinking of committing a mass murder since high school and developed a plan for his van attack over more than a month. He said Minassian has trouble understanding people and emotions, but is at or above average in intelligence tests and can work through most problems by intellect without the aid of empathy.
“This decision to commit a mass murder wasn't some spur of the moment decision he made without having time to think his way through it,” Woodside said.
Woodside disagreed with conclusions of key defence witness Dr. Alexander Westphal, a U. S.-based forensic psychiatrist who specializes in autism. Westphal earlier testified that autism caused “a fragmentation of mind or distortion in thinking” that put the attack “completely beyond (Minassian's) comprehension” and that Minassian's communication was like “that of a child” and his social skills “even lower.”
Woodside said Westphal's conclusions are a mix of overstatement and understatement, giving a wrong impression. Westphal's conclusion “mocks, actually, the reality of what Mr. Minassian has said about his acts,” Woodside said.
In tests with Woodside and other psychiatrists before trial, Minassian said he had to push all the reasons not to proceed with the attack out of his head. Court heard that this was another sign he knew what he planned was wrong.
“He is focused on a very egocentric goal, a very selfish goal, that he has justified through that combination of motivations he's described: loneliness, rejection, fear of failure, wanting to leave his mark in life,” Woodside said. “Those things end up being more important to him than the pain he is going to cause.”
Minassian followed the reaction to his attack from jail, Woodside said. “He was aware that his (video) statement to the police had been released to the media in the fall of 2019,” Woodside said, “and told me he was curious to see how it would be portrayed by the media.”
“To be honest, I was a little bit happy about the attention,” Minassian told Woodside. “That's why I did it, specifically for the notoriety, that somebody is going to make a big deal about this.”
Woodside said he asked Minassian what he might have thought if his name were never released to the public. “He told me he would feel very disappointed,” Woodside said. “He wouldn't get credit for this, no one would know he had done it.”
He waved the banner of the incel movement to boost his notoriety. Incel, short for “involuntarily celibate,” is a community of men who feel aggrieved by their inability to attract sexual interest from women. They express their anger by creating a hateful view of society and dream of ways to upend it.
Minassian said he knew the families of his victims would be “very upset about this.”
If he saw them in court, he said, he might apologize.
Woodside asked Minassian if he really was sorry.
“I don't know. It's kind of hard to answer that question.” Does he have any regrets? “I would be lying if I said I did.”
HE HAS AWARENESS THAT THIS IS GOING TO HAVE A REALLY NEGATIVE IMPACT ON PEOPLE AROUND HIM.