Van attack killer had autism, but not psychosis, trial told
Toronto van attack killer Alek Minassian displayed symptoms of autism but no signs of psychosis, which is at odds with almost all cases of people found to be not criminally responsible for their violence, Canada’s most prominent forensic psychiatrist told court.
Dr. John Bradford, testifying at the mass-murder trial Thursday morning, said that because of this, Minassian does not fit the conventional notion of someone who is not criminally responsible.
“Most of the time, in my whole career, the evaluation of criminal responsibility to the point of being not criminally responsible on the basis of a mental disorder, really is based on whether the person is psychotic or not,” Bradford said.
He said there could be a “hypothetical possibility” of finding a path to a not criminally responsible verdict based on symptoms of autism, but not one he supports.
He estimated that 80 to 90 per cent of people who are found not criminally responsible have some kind of psychotic condition, a mental break that deprives them of an operating mind.
Bradford has, over more than 40 years, examined many of Canada’s most notorious killers, such as Paul Bernardo, Robert Pickton, Russell Williams and Luka Magnotta. An important part of his expertise is assessing whether an accused person is fit to stand trial, or if they are not criminally responsible for criminal acts they are charged with.
His evidence is important as Minassian, 28, of Richmond Hill, Ont., stands trial for 10 counts of first- degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
Everything at trial hinges on Minassian’s mental state.
He admits he planned the van attack and purposely drove onto the sidewalk with intent to kill people.
He admits he was the person who killed 10 people and attempted to kill 16 who were injured. And yet he pleaded not guilty, claiming he is not criminally responsible for the attack because his autism prevented him from understanding it was wrong.
Minassian’s lawyer, Boris Bytensky, told court that his autism is Minassian’s sole relevant diagnosis at trial.
Bradford is a professor at Mcmaster University and head of a psychiatry team at St Joseph’s Healthcare, both in Hamilton. Minassian spent 60 days at St. Joseph’s secure psychiatric facility for a court- ordered assessment of his mental fitness. He arrived shortly after he tried to kill himself by drinking liquid soap, so he was kept in an isolation suite and monitored intensely, Bradford said.
Bradford’s team never saw him appearing depressed. He did display ritualistic behaviour, such as handwashing and rearranging glasses of water. He sometimes smiled to himself and talked to himself.
Minassian started focusing on the subject of mass murder around 2008 or 2009, and routinely researched it on the Internet. His fascination with mass murderers “gained momentum” in 2016 and stayed with him leading up to his van attack on April 23, 2018, Bradford said.
“There was no history either from his family or any of the sources I was able to look at, that there were signs or symptoms of psychosis present, before the incident on April 23, 2018, in my opinion, during the incident or afterwards,” Bradford told court.
Minassian, he said, “has not been violent, that I’m aware of, other than this incident.”
Bradford said autism, generally, is not linked to violence. However, in the rare subset of mass murderers, he said there appears to be an overrepresentation of people with autism spectrum disorder.
“Most people who are on the autism spectrum are not violent at all and if there is any violence it would be a very small fraction of people with that diagnosis,” he said. “There seems to be some relationship between autism and mass homicide. That doesn’t say there is any type of causation relationship or anything like that, but there seems to be some correlation that we do not understand very well.”
He differentiated between the lack of empathy toward other people’s emotional state associated with autism from the lack of empathy shown by psychopaths: psychopaths take advantage of the emotions of others through manipulation while someone with autism struggles to even recognize others’ emotions.
Bradford said he understands that linking autism to violence is highly controversial. He added words of caution.
“By far the majority of people that have autism have no history of any type of criminal behaviour, they’re going to live their lives without any history of violence. In fact, if I understand the research properly, they’re more likely to be victims than perpetrators.”
He does not think autism alone could cause the level of mental disorder that could trigger a finding of not criminally responsible, as it is outlined in Section 16 of Canada’s criminal code.
“If a person, in my opinion, is not suffering from a psychosis, and I gave the example of a delusion, if they don’t suffer from a delusion, they don’t come within Section 16.
“For the impact on a person’s mind to be severe enough to bring them within Section 16 requires a psychosis, fundamental symptoms are delusions and hallucinations … There is nothing there, that I think, the impact of autism spectrum disorder goes as far as that.”
Min ass ian has never had hallucination or delusions, court heard. Bradford said the closest he could think of in this case is that hyper- focus as a symptom of autism could relate to Minassian’s obsession with mass murderers and incels — the ideology of “involuntary celibates.”
On the whole, however, Bradford said he found nothing was depriving Minassian of having an operating mind before, during or after the deadly van attack.