Allan Schoenborn, who killed his 3 children, granted day passes

A B.C. man who wasfound not criminally responsible after killing his threechildren has been granted escorted outingsinto the community.

Allan Schoenborn, 47, who lived in Merritt, has received the B.C. Review Board's approval for outingsfollowing his annual hearing as a patient at the province'spsychiatric hospital in Coquitlamsome seven years after he killed his children.

The family of Darcie Clarke, the children's mother and Schoenborn's estranged wife, said she was disappointed with the decision.

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Schoenborn admitted killing 10-year-old Kaitlynne, eight-year-old Max and five-year-old Cordon, who were found slain in the mobile home where they lived with their mother in April 2008, but pleaded not guilty in court.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Powers, who heard the three-month trial in Kamloops without a jury, found that the killings were deliberate and planned by Schoenborn, but said he was not sane at the time.

"I find on balance of probabilities he was suffering from a disease of the mind," Powers told the court at the end of the trial.

Powers rejected the Crown's assertion that Schoenborn killed his children as revenge against their mother.

"I find it unlikely [he] would have killed his children out of anger given the close and caring relationship he had with his children," he said .

Outrage over decision

Clarke was not happy with the board's decision.

"This is the decision my family and I had been dreading: AllanSchoenborn, the man who murdered my three children Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon will be re-entering our community even though the review board found him to be a high risk to public safety," Clarke said in a statement.

The ruling gives the hospital director the discretion to directtrained staff members to escortSchoenbornon brief, highly managedexcursions into a nearby city. The ruling permits outings only after extensive planning by thehospital. Its medical director can cancel a planned trip at anypoint.

StacyGaltsays Clarke, her cousin,was "just shattered" by the decision.

"She cannot live inMerrittanymore with her mother because it holds too many memories,"Galtsaid."She came here [in PortCoquitlam]to live with the rest of her family, and she can't do that anymore for fear of running into Allan on an outing."

FederalIndustry MinisterJames Moore tweeted that the review board's decision was "an insult" to the victimsand "should trigger a systemic review."

PortCoquitlamMayorGreg Moore said that Friday's decision has outraged the community and that he will urge council to ask the B.C. government to re-evaluatethe board's decision.

"We're just shocked by this. When this board makes a decision, they're not taking into consideration what the effects are on the community," he said.

"They're looking at it in a silo.They're not taking into consideration the family that lives in the community and the citizens that are here and are now expected to try to understand and comprehend this decision."

FamilywantSchoenbornlabelled high-risk offender

The decision was made by a three-member panel that spent a monthdeliberating over the case that has come under intense publicscrutiny and was even used as an example by Prime Minister StephenHarper.

The ruling comes even as the Crown warned panel members to heednew Conservative government legislation empowering them to holdmentally ill offenders indefinitely.

Schoenborn'slawyer has said in the past that approvalof outings for his client could make it more difficult for theprovince to persuade a court to label the man a "highrisk" offender.

Clarke said that her family will stillwork with the Crown to apply to B.C. Supreme Court to label the47-year-old a "high risk" offender.

"This is uncharted territory.Our hope is that the SupremeCourt will look at the facts without the review board bias and findAllan a highrisk."

Clarke also took aim at the B.C. Review Board directly, callingon Premier Christy Clark and B.C.'s minister of justice to reviewthe board and its operations at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

"The dysfunctional nature of the board and forensic hospitaladministration is shameful," she said. "These two entities havecultivated a culture which condones conflict of interest whileignoring public safety. This is a system screaming out for reform."

Lengthy hearing

The hearing for Schoenborn's request for brief outings lasted four days,prolonged by adversarial questioning by the Crown of each witness.Most hearings take just hours.

The Crown challenged the hospital's director, a prominent experton assessing and treating not criminally responsible patients, arguing that evaluations ofSchoenborn's risk to the community were "not up to standard orconsistent with the best practices."

Prosecutor Wendy Dawson told the board reviewing Schoenborn'scase that allowing him to have supervised outings was gambling onpublic safety, and would not align with the year-old Conservativelegislation, Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act.

The Criminal Justice Branch said at the time it was updating itsfiles on Schoenborn's status and would wait until the ruling beforedetermining whether to ask the court to designate him "high risk."

The hospital's lawyer countered during the hearing that publicsafety is always the first consideration before granting a patientlimited release, and its goal is rehabilitation.

Schoenborn's treating psychiatrist said that while the manremains a "significant threat," he is at low risk of escape andwould be under constant watch.

The hearing was told Schoenborn has 11 recorded incidents ofphysical or verbal aggression inside the hospital since his lastreview, mainly in relation to one other patient.