Mentally ill dad who killed three kids up for review in B.C.

VANCOUVER — The case of a British Columbia man found not criminally responsible for killing his three children because of a mental illness is up for review, two years after a provincial board opened the door to him receiving supervised day trips.

Allan Schoenborn has yet to be granted escorted day passes, despite the B.C. Review Board delegating the authority to grant them in May 2015 to the director of the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in suburban Vancouver. Schoenborn stabbed his 10-year-old daughter Kaitlynne and smothered his two sons Max and Cordon, eight and five, at the family’s home in Merritt in April 2008. A court ruled he was experiencing psychosis at the time and believed he was saving his children from a life of crime, and physical and sexual abuse. Schoenborn’s annual review board hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. His lawyers, Diane Nielsen and Dante Abbey, have not said whether they will request any changes to their client’s custody order. Escorted outings are typically brief, lasting no longer than two hours, Nielsen and Abbey said in an email. Patients are accompanied by at least two staff members and visits are planned at pre-arranged locations near the hospital.

The Crown is also applying separately in B.C. Supreme Court to have Schoenborn designated a high-risk accused, which would end the possibility of any outings, and extend the time between annual review hearings up to three years. Only a new court order could reverse the designation.