A Toronto judge has found a woman who stabbed a stranger to death in the city’s underground PATH network not criminally responsible for first-degree murder. Superior Court Justice John McMahon on Tuesday agreed with both Crown and defence lawyers that Rohinie Bisesar, 43, was suffering from “severe” untreated schizophrenia when she stabbed 28-year-old Rosemarie Junor and was incapable of knowing the act was morally or legally wrong.“This is an extremely tragic case,” McMahon said in court shortly before delivering his verdict, calling Junor a “bright, young woman” who on Dec. 11, 2015, was merely going about her business at an underground Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto’s downtown financial district. The Ontario Review Board, a five-person panel usually including psychiatrists, a lawyer and a member of the public, will now determine Bisesar’s detention and release, McMahon said.“This is not a case of a person complaining of mental disorder for the first time after a killing,” he said. In the brief trial last week, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ian Swayze testified Bisesar was in a state of severe psychosis, experiencing hallucinations, delusions and disorganized thinking when she bought a knife from a Dollar Store and stabbed Junor in the heart.Junor was a “victim of (Bisesar’s) illness,” Swayze testified. He said the horrible tragedy for everyone involved would not have happened if Bisesar had been in treatment. He diagnosed Bisesar with schizophrenia, suffering from fixed beliefs that external forces had placed an implant or device into her body and were controlling her movements. Junor, a newlywed ultrasound technician, had popped into the drugstore in the underground PATH system on an afternoon break, court heard. She was on the phone with a friend when, according to an agreed statement of facts read in court, Bisesar walked up to her and stabbed her. Bisesar put the knife on a cos ...
|
