DLM
03-08-2005, 03:30 PM
Colin Perkel-COBOURG, Ont. (CP)
A young man who killed a fellow student at an Alberta high school almost six years ago in a case that sent shockwaves across the country won permission Tuesday to move to a half-way house despite still posing a threat to the public. In releasing the former Taber, Alta., student from jail, an Ontario judge agreed the now 20-year-old was not ready for an outright release into the community.
The decision followed a joint statement from both Crown and defence based on psychiatric and parole reports.
"The concerns remain with regard to the pleasure he derives from violence," the Crown's David Thompson quoted a psychiatric report as saying.
"He continues to pose a significant risk to the public."
However, the experts unanimously agreed he should be moved next week to an open-custody facility in Toronto, where he would be close to his family and kept under close supervision.
The man completed his three-year jail term 16 months ago but was kept behind bars after psychiatrists deemed him to be dangerous.
That meant he could have had to serve his seven years of probation behind bars.
In April 1999, the then-14-year-old sawed off his stepfather's rifle and used it to fatally shoot 17-year-old Jason Lang and injure another student at W. R. Myers High School east of Lethbridge.
He had intended to kill everyone at the school.
The killing, coming a week after two youths shot and killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., caused widespread alarm in Canada about high school violence.
In both cases, the killers had been bullied or shunned by their classmates and were unpopular in school.
One psychiatric report described the former Alberta student, who cannot be identified, as cerebral, odd and socially awkward, a tormented boy who finally snapped after years of schoolyard harassment.
His lawyer portrayed him as a tragic figure who cowered behind a couch, terrified to go to school, and who did his best to avoid the violence that seemed to chase him down.
In taking the unprecedented step of keeping him behind bars even after he had served his in-custody sentence, Ontario Court Justice Rhys Morgan relied on psychiatric assessments that found he had shown little remorse for the killing.
Those assessments showed he continued to have violent fantasies and possessed "psychopathic traits."
Morgan ordered him held in closed custody indefinitely, as long as the total prison time did not exceed 10 years.
Those assessments now indicate he has received treatment and "gained maturity" and is showing much improved interpersonal and social skills.
However, he still needs a "very slow and supervised transition" back into society, Thompson said.
Defence lawyer Alan Richter said his client was "certainly eager to begin the next chapter" in getting back to normal life.
During his custody, the shooter was transferred from Alberta to the Brookside Youth Centre in Cobourg, Ont., to be closer to his family.
In a statement, his family said it wished to "express gratitude" to the courts and offered a prayer to Lang's parents and others in Taber affected by the tragic shooting and asked for forgiveness.
A young man who killed a fellow student at an Alberta high school almost six years ago in a case that sent shockwaves across the country won permission Tuesday to move to a half-way house despite still posing a threat to the public. In releasing the former Taber, Alta., student from jail, an Ontario judge agreed the now 20-year-old was not ready for an outright release into the community.
The decision followed a joint statement from both Crown and defence based on psychiatric and parole reports.
"The concerns remain with regard to the pleasure he derives from violence," the Crown's David Thompson quoted a psychiatric report as saying.
"He continues to pose a significant risk to the public."
However, the experts unanimously agreed he should be moved next week to an open-custody facility in Toronto, where he would be close to his family and kept under close supervision.
The man completed his three-year jail term 16 months ago but was kept behind bars after psychiatrists deemed him to be dangerous.
That meant he could have had to serve his seven years of probation behind bars.
In April 1999, the then-14-year-old sawed off his stepfather's rifle and used it to fatally shoot 17-year-old Jason Lang and injure another student at W. R. Myers High School east of Lethbridge.
He had intended to kill everyone at the school.
The killing, coming a week after two youths shot and killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., caused widespread alarm in Canada about high school violence.
In both cases, the killers had been bullied or shunned by their classmates and were unpopular in school.
One psychiatric report described the former Alberta student, who cannot be identified, as cerebral, odd and socially awkward, a tormented boy who finally snapped after years of schoolyard harassment.
His lawyer portrayed him as a tragic figure who cowered behind a couch, terrified to go to school, and who did his best to avoid the violence that seemed to chase him down.
In taking the unprecedented step of keeping him behind bars even after he had served his in-custody sentence, Ontario Court Justice Rhys Morgan relied on psychiatric assessments that found he had shown little remorse for the killing.
Those assessments showed he continued to have violent fantasies and possessed "psychopathic traits."
Morgan ordered him held in closed custody indefinitely, as long as the total prison time did not exceed 10 years.
Those assessments now indicate he has received treatment and "gained maturity" and is showing much improved interpersonal and social skills.
However, he still needs a "very slow and supervised transition" back into society, Thompson said.
Defence lawyer Alan Richter said his client was "certainly eager to begin the next chapter" in getting back to normal life.
During his custody, the shooter was transferred from Alberta to the Brookside Youth Centre in Cobourg, Ont., to be closer to his family.
In a statement, his family said it wished to "express gratitude" to the courts and offered a prayer to Lang's parents and others in Taber affected by the tragic shooting and asked for forgiveness.