Mathew De Grood to be transferred to Alberta Hospital Edmonton
The young man charged with five murders last April has been ordered by court to be transferred to Edmonton for a 30-day psychological assessment to determine whether or not he can be deemed criminally responsible
Kaity Brown, Publishing Editor
After the fatal stabbings of 5 students at the University of Calgary in April, the accused, Mathew De Grood faced trial for the first time on July 22.
De Grood had been held at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre since the incident in April. Last month he was deemed fit to stand trial and was ordered to appear in court after a 30-day psychological assessment.
Friends and family of the 5 victims: Lawrence Hong, 27; Joshua Hunter, 23; Kaitlin Perras, 23; Zackariah Rathwell, 21 and Jordan Segura, 22 were also in attendance at the hearing.
Although De Grood has been charged with murder of the first degree, the court has ordered De Grood to be transferred to the Alberta Hospital Edmonton to determine whether he can be considered criminally responsible for the killings or not.
“This assessment is to determine whether in the opinion of a psychiatrist at the time of the offences my client was considered criminally responsible, in other words, [whether] he had the necessary intent or whether he lacked it due to mental disease,” said defence lawyer Allan Fay in an interview with CBC News.
The incident occurred on April 15, on the University of Calgary’s year-end tradition known as Bermuda Short’s Days. The five were attacked and killed at a house party in Brentwood.
Neighbours in the area described the party as quiet and not out-of-the-ordinary.
Memorials for each of the victims were presented at Mount Royal University.
De Grood will face court again on August 29.
