Mike on Crime by Mike McIntyre Read Free Book Online Page B

should be jailed indefinitely. “He should be held responsible for what he has done. He doesn’t have an illness, and I don’t agree with the decision of the court,” Willows told a review board hearing at the downtown Law Courts. The hearing came after Wiebe was removed from the Selkirk mental facility by police days earlier and charged with threatening to bring a gun into the facility. He was also accused of threatening and extorting from patients, and was being detained at the Remand Centre. The hearing was to determine Wiebe’s immediate future.
    The family of Wiebe’s victim was in court and said the legal system should be ashamed. “It is pretty sad that somebody like that can manipulate the justice system,” said Lorne Hodge. “As time goes on, the truth is slowly coming out.”
    Hodge was sickened to hear Willow testify how Wiebe had recently admitted to attempting to rape his stepmother before he viciously attacked her with a knife and his hands. That disclosure of evidence was never made by Wiebe during the trial.
    Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky called allegations that his client faked being mentally ill “the theatre of the absurd.” “It’s absolutely inappropriate for us to retry this case,” he said. Brodsky said Wiebe was willing to say and do just about anything to get out of Selkirk, where he was spending most of his days locked in a small room by himself. The only medical treatment he was receiving was a daily sleeping pill, said Brodsky. He wanted Wiebe transferred to a facility in Ontario or British Columbia, but the waiting lists were long.
    Willows said there was good reason Wiebe wasn’t being treated more extensively: “He has no symptoms of psychosis, no symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Whether the court found [a mental illness] or not, I don’t see it and I can’t treat it,” he said bluntly. He blasted Crown and defence lawyers in the trial for relying on evidence from doctors commissioned by Brodsky to examine Wiebe. “I find that very tragic,” said Willows.
    WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2006
    This wasn’t the way the Selkirk Mental Health Centre wanted to get rid of Joey Wiebe. The mentally ill killer was now a wanted fugitive. Wiebe, now 23, had somehow managed to shake two escorts during what was supposed to be a routine medical appointment in Winnipeg.
    Selkirk’s CEO, Ken Nattrass, said Wiebe and the two male staff members had just walked into the main doors of the Health Sciences Centre entrance when Wiebe suddenly turned and ran. Wiebe had not been wearing handcuffs or leg shackles. “He just turned and bolted out the door and ran as fast as he could,” Nattrass said. He said the escorts chased Wiebe, but “he outran them and was out of their sight.”
    Wiebe’s lawyer, Greg Brodsky, appealed for him to surrender to police right away so that he could get the psychiatric help he needed: “He needs to turn himself in. The best thing for him is to pursue his treatment options. He can’t do that on the outside.”
    THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2006
    There was still no sign of Wiebe, more than 24 hours after he bolted into the community. He was on the run. And, family members feared, looking to kill again.
    Wiebe had earlier threatened to escape and murder his stepfather, according to newly released court documents. “My stepfather is a real asshole. Once I get out of here I will go and kill him,” Wiebe once said, according to a report by a review board overseeing his care.
    Meanwhile, Selkirk officials were reviewing whether security should be beefed up for high-risk patients being escorted to appointments or hearings.
    â€œAnything that’s put in place is better than what appears to be now,” said provincial Tory justice critic Kelvin Goertzen upon hearing of the incident.
    Selkirk Mental Health Centre CEO Ken Nattrass said his staff were following the