Ottawa: A Canadian man who stabbed to death five fellow students at a Calgary house party was not criminally responsible for the 2014 rampage due to mental illness, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Justice Eric Macklin found Matthew De Grood, 24, suffered from psychosis which put into question whether he knew the killings were morally wrong. The court heard De Grood had become withdrawn and started posting online about the end of the world, zombies and Darth Vader a month before the April 2014 attack.
The son of a senior Calgary police officer and a University of Calgary alumnus who was headed to law school, he stabbed fellow alumni at a home in a quiet suburban neighbourhood that was hosting a party marking the end of classes.
The defence said in closing arguments De Grood had believed, in his delusion, that he was defending himself from werewolves and vampires, and that the only way to kill them was to stab them in the heart.
De Grood will now be detained at a mental health hospital and meet annually with a review board that will determine his eligibility for safe release. Miles Hong, the brother of one of the victims, told reporters outside the courthouse the verdict will be a "recurring nightmare" for the victims' families.
"The end of this trial is not the end of the journey for us. We continue to be broken," Hong said.
"There will be no peace for us. Our wounds will never fully heal because every year our families will have to wonder what will be the fate of the man who destroyed so many lives," he said.
"Every year we will be forced to re-live the details of our family (member)'s death and the anguish and sorrow."
