A Wallaceburg senior previously accused of murdering his wife will likely spend the rest of his days in a psychiatric hospital.
The 95-year-old is currently at the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care in St. Thomas waiting for a risk assessment hearing by the Ontario Review Board (ORB) that will ultimately decide his future.
On February 1, 2022, the senior, whose name is being withheld by a publication ban to protect the identity of the victim, was found not criminally responsible for strangling his 89-year-old wife in bed at an apartment on Margaret Avenue in Wallaceburg on December 26, 2020.
A source from the ORB told CK News Today that cases like this one usually take at least 10 years to resolve and that the subject could ultimately be denied an absolute discharge from a mental health facility.
"Once a verdict of Not Criminally Responsible (NCR) has been rendered by the Court, the NCR patient is finished with court. They remain subject to the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board (ORB) until a panel can conclude that they are no longer 'a significant threat to the safety of the public' and entitled to an absolute discharge," read a statement from the source. "I can anecdotally observe that most persons who are found NCR of a homicide spend longer than 10 years under the ORB’s jurisdiction if they achieve an absolute discharge at all."
The source goes on to say that access to the community granted to an NRC patient can only be determined by the ORB at a hearing and every patient under the ORB’s jurisdiction has to be reviewed at least annually.
