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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Mother not responsible for attacks

Stabbed baby and nine-year-old son

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 07/22/2011 1:00 AM

A Winnipeg woman who stabbed her two young children and sister has been found not criminally responsible because she was suffering from a major mental illness.

The 36-year-old, who can't be named to protect the identities of her victims, appeared in court Thursday on several charges, including multiple counts of attempted murder. She admitted to attacking her four-month-old and nine-year-old sons and sister, 32, with a knife in an unprovoked rampage at her downtown apartment in June 2010.

"Everyone is going to die today," the woman said after grabbing a large kitchen knife. She also kicked her four-month-old niece across the room before she was disarmed by her sister and held for police. Her two children suffered critical injuries from stab wounds to the stomach but recovered. Her sister suffered minor injuries to her chest; her niece was not injured.

Both Crown and defence lawyers agreed with medical reports stating she couldn't appreciate the nature of her actions based on hallucinations and paranoid delusions she was experiencing at the time.

Provincial court Judge Rocky Pollack agreed with the not criminally responsible diagnosis, so the woman will not go to jail nor receive a criminal record. She will now be under the care of a provincial review board while receiving medical treatment.

"We have no authority to punish an act that is committed by someone who is not able to form the criminal intent," Pollack said. "We know now these bizarre and frightening acts took place while she was suffering a psychotic disorder."

The woman, who came to Canada from Somalia, has no prior criminal record. Sources previously told the Free Press she was grappling with post-partum depression and had been hospitalized in February 2010. She told police her husband had been using magic on her and expressed concerns about being poisoned and abducted. Her husband doesn't live in Canada.

"She is known by family to otherwise be a very caring and loving parent," Dr. Stanley Yaren wrote in a report presented to the court Thursday. He has been working closely with the woman since her arrest and said she has responded well to anti-psychotic medication. She is unable to recall many details of the attack, which ended with the woman calmly sitting on a couch and waiting for police to arrive.

The woman is now back in the community, living under the supervision of medical officials and the Elizabeth Fry Society. Child and Family Services now has custody of her children, court was told. She will continue to undergo treatment and will appear before the review board within three months to determine if she can remain an out-patient or should be brought into a secure facility such as Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

She is not allowed to have any contact with her children unless supervised visits are approved by CFS.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 22, 2011 B2

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