Case to contain Schoenborn can proceed

Crown lawyers can proceed with legal arguments aimed at indefinitely locking up a mentally ill man who killed his three children more than seven years ago, a B.C. judge has ruled.

But their bid to have Allan Schoenborn designated a “high-risk accused” won’t be heard unless they defeat a constitutional fight against the law, enacted by the federal Conservative government last year. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Martha Devlin ruled on Wednesday that public protection is the top consideration in allowing prosecutors to argue that changes to the Criminal Code should apply to Schoenborn.

Schoenborn stabbed his 10-year-old daughter and smothered his eight- and five-year-old sons in their Merritt home in April 2008. A trial found him not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder.

Last month, Schoenborn’s lawyers told the court that Bill C-14 should not be applied in the case because the law was passed more than six years after the killings.

But Devlin said the law has “immediate application” to all people in the system found not criminally responsible.