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'Canadian Psycho' admits killing, but mental health at issue

Source: AFP | September 30, 2014, Tuesday | Online Edition

A former Canadian porn actor admitted at the start of his trial Monday to killing and dismembering a Chinese student, but his lawyer blamed the gruesome crime on mental illness.

The court heard that Luka Rocco Magnotta, 32, has admitted to the underlying facts in the case, including killing 33-year-old Lin Jun.

But he formally pleaded not guilty to first degree murder, committing indignities to a body, harassing Canada's prime minister and other charges that could see him jailed for life, if he is convicted.

The jury must now consider his state of mind at the time of the offenses, and whether or not he is criminally responsible.

The defense said it would present medical files and expert witnesses to demonstrate the accused's long history of mental illness, while the prosecution said it would show the crime was premeditated and not the act of a lunatic.

"Whether Mr Magnotta is exempt from criminal responsibility will be the matter for your deliberations," defense attorney Luc Leclair said in opening remarks to the jury.

Magnotta is accused of using an ice pick to fatally stab Lin in May 2012, before sexually abusing and dismembering the man's corpse, and then posting a video of the heinous act online.

Days after the killing, Montreal police discovered the victim's torso in a suitcase by the trash outside an apartment building along a busy highway.

Lin's severed hands and feet were sent in the mail to federal political parties in Ottawa -- one of the packages was addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- and to two schools in Vancouver. The head was found in a Montreal park months later.

Magnotta fled Canada, but was arrested in Germany in June 2012, following an international manhunt, and extradited. He was arrested in a Berlin Internet cafe, after stops in France and elsewhere in Germany.

- Lin's father seeks answers -

As the trial got under way, Magnotta sat idly behind a glass enclosure in the cramped Montreal courtroom as Lin's father looked on from one of only 13 seats in the gallery.

Prosecutor Louis Bouthillier called on the jury not to be swayed into believing that Magnotta must be insane in order to have committed such horrific crimes.

Bouthillier said this was a "planned and deliberate" murder, pointing to a December 2011 email to a British journalist investigating cat mutilations, in which Magnotta purportedly said he wanted to videotape the slaughter of a human.

The defense said it would urge the jury to order in-hospital psychiatric treatment for Magnotta rather than life in prison.

If he is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would land in a psychiatric ward until doctors deemed him fit for release.

- Paranoid schizophrenia -

At a preliminary hearing last year, questions arose about Magnotta's mental health, but he was found fit to stand trial in two psychiatric assessments.

He had been treated for paranoid schizophrenia -- a condition from which he has long suffered -- in 2005 when he was convicted of fraud, Leclair said.

Doctors had prescribed antipsychotic medications, as well as drugs to reduce anxiety and help him sleep.

He also attended psychotherapy sessions and health education but apparently did not always take his medication.

Without the drugs, "he would be prone to relapse of his symptoms, which include paranoia, auditory hallucinations, fear of the unknown, etc," a psychiatrist told an Ontario court in June 2005.

One month before Lin's death, Magnotta was also diagnosed at a Montreal hospital with borderline personality disorder, said Leclair.

The disorder causes significant emotional instability that can lead to behavioral problems.

Born Eric Clinton Newman, he changed his name to Magnotta in 2006 after years of using aliases such as Vladimir Romanov, or Angel.

The media dubbed him the "Canadian Psycho" after it was discovered that the soundtrack from the movie "American Psycho" was playing in the background of the video of the alleged murder that was posted online.

Lin's family has branded him "a devil."

Outside the courtroom, Lin's father Diran said through a family lawyer and interpreter that he intends to sit through the trial and hear the verdict.

"He wants to know what happened to his son, and why," the lawyer said.

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, with testimony from 60 witnesses and depositions from others in France and Germany, as well as evidence that Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer described as likely to be "shocking and disturbing."

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