This is a decision from the Ontario Review Board at the annual hearing of Dimitri Hesson, who was found Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) on a charge of criminal harassment for which he was detained for repeatedly knocking on the neighbour’s door asking for sex. The central legal question was whether Mr. Hesson continued to pose a “significant threat” to public safety, which would justify his continued detention under a conditional discharge as the least onerous course of action (para. 5).
The Board’s analysis of future dangerousness heavily weighed his previous NCR finding from 2008, which involved two key charges: first, assaulting a peace officer, and second, injuring an animal. The Board repeatedly references this history to establish a pattern of violence that emerges when Mr. Hesson’s schizophrenia is unmedicated. Dr. Gojer, the psychiatrist, testified that Mr. Hesson’s risk of future violence is moderate, based partly on past behaviours including “physically assaultive behaviour” reported in the hospital risk assessment and the explicit mention of the prior animal cruelty charge (para. 24). The Board connects this history to his current diagnosis, noting he has a “history of violent offending when he has been psychotic,” (para. 41) with the animal cruelty forming part of that violent history.
The Board ultimately found that Mr. Hesson remains a significant threat, not because he is currently violent, but because his history in violent behaviour and animal cruelty, his chronic illness, and his pattern of disengagement from treatment suggest a likelihood of decompensation and a return to behaviours that have caused serious psychological (and potentially physical) harm in the past. The most recent incidents resulted within two years of receiving an absolute discharge on his previous conviction, therefore past behaviour cannot be overlooked (para. 42).
https://canlii.ca/t/kb5xd