Behaviour of mentally ill child-killer Allan Schoenborn doesn't stick out: psych nurse

A psychiatric nurse says a mentally ill British Columbia man who killed his three children behaves in ways similar to other hospital patients, even as the Crown seeks harsher rules around his confinement.

Leanne Lee told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing that Allan Schoenborn does not stand out from other patients and that staff enjoy working with him.

But the Crown is asking a judge to declare Schoenborn a "high-risk" accused, arguing he has a decades-long history of violence that merits the label that could stop almost all hospital absences and extend annual review hearings to every three years.

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Lee says Schoenborn's negative behaviours have fluctuated since he was admitted to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Port Coquitlam in 2010, but she says that's normal and overall he has made decent progress.

The Crown says Schoenborn has acted aggressively at least 85 times at the hospital, including four episodes of physical aggression against other patients and staff.

Schoenborn was found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder for stabbing his 10-year-old daughter and smothering his five-and-eight-year-olds sons at their Merritt, B.C., mobile home in April 2008.