Quebec mosque shooting suspect couldn’t invoke NCR defence: psychiatrist
QUEBEC — Alexandre Bissonnette was hoping for a defence of not criminally responsible when he faked having psychotic symptoms such as hearing voices, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the defence said Tuesday.
The Quebec City mosque shooter was also looking for a way of making his act more acceptable in the eyes of his parents, Sylvain Faucher added later as he was cross-examined by the Crown.
Faucher, who met with Bissonnette at the defence’s request in 2017, said he told the accused’s lawyers he didn’t think they could successfully mount a defence of not criminally responsible for their client.
He concluded it wouldn’t be possible because the man who killed six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque in January of that year understood his acts and was capable of knowing if they were good or bad.
Another psychiatrist, Marie-Frederique Allard, reached the same conclusion.
“It’s clear he was responsible,” she said.
The psychiatrists both testified Tuesday at Bissonnette’s sentencing arguments in a Quebec City courtroom.
Bissonnette, 28, pleaded guilty to six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder related to the deadly mosque shooting.
Bissonnette’s first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.