Thomas Hamp testifies he stabbed Emily Sanche to save her from attacks by 'secret police'

Warning: this story contains distressing details.

Thomas Hamp testified Wednesday that he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanchetwo years ago while he was in the throes of a delusion that he was under surveillance by secret police.

The 27-year-old testifiedthat he believed at the time it was "merciful" to stab Sanchebecause she was going to be raped and tortured by police he believed were framing him as a sexual predator.

"I was engulfed in paranoia," he said Wednesday.

"I believed dying was the only escape from the secret police."

Hamp stabbed himself in the chest and then slashed his own neck after assaulting Sanche.

• 'This isn't going to be a whodunit': Defence concedes Thomas Hamp fatally stabbed Emily Sanche

Thomas Hamp is on trial before Justice Grant Currie at Court of King's Bench charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 20, 2022, death of Emily Sanche. Hamp has admittedthat he stabbed Sanche, but his lawyer Brian Pfefferleis arguing that Hamp is not criminally responsible because of mental health issues.

Prosecutor Cory Bliss closed the Crown's case Tuesday. Hamp took the stand Wednesday.

Hamp said that today he feels "stable and lucid" because he is back on anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medication.

He testified that he stopped taking hismedicationsin the months before Sanche's death because he believed they were brainwashing him. He had been prescribed the drugs after a therapist diagnosed him with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in 2020.

But he continued smoking cannabis about three times a day.

Earlier witnesses described how Hamp's behaviour became more erratic in the fall of 2021.

Hampsaid he believed that he was under surveillance by secret police that were framing him as a pedophile. He believed that he had been sexually molested by relatives, that friends had been replaced by imposters and that people were breaking into the apartment he and Sanche shared.

Sanche tried to get medical attention for her partner and kept a detailed journal of his trips to doctors and clinics. Based on her diary entries, read in court, she believed the medical system was failing Hamp.

But on Wednesday, Hamp testified that his own actions did not help and that he wasn't entirely honest with Sancheor doctors.

For instance, he lied to Sancheabout taking his medications [he had stopped]and he downplayed his symptoms to doctors because he didn't think anything was wrong, "and because I didn't want them to think I was crazy."

Hamp said that he began smoking marijuana "occasionally"when it was legalized in 2018, but thatbythe fall of 2021, he was smoking between two and six times a day from a pipe. He said it made him feel, "energetic, relaxed and engaged."

He saidhe stopped smoking two days before her death, when she asked him to,because she thought it may be contributing to his delusions.

When asked by Bliss whether marijuana is something he was addicted to, he replied "I would say so, yes."

While in custody after Sanche's death, Hamp wrote a letter to Emily's cousin, Catherine Sanche. In the letter, entered as an exhibit, he speaks about his escalating paranoia in the fall of 2021.

"I did not believe it at the time, but I now think this paranoia and ensuing psychosis were caused by the weed I was smoking," he wrote.

"Needless to say, I have quit for good."