A forensic psychologist says the young man who pleaded guilty to murdering North Delta teenager Laura Szendrei "did not intend to kill the victim."
Lawyers have been arguing in Surrey provincial court whether the killer, whose identity is shielded by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, should be sentenced as a youth or as an adult. He was just shy of his 18th birthday when he murdered the 15-year-old girl in 2010, striking her over the head at least three times with a metal pipe as she struggled to escape from him along a path in North Delta's Mackie Park.
If sentenced as an adult, his sentence will be life in prison without eligibility to apply for parole for seven years. If sentenced as a youth, he faces a seven-year sentence, with a maximum four of those years to be served in prison and the remainder in the community, under supervision.
The first four days of the sentencing hearing took place July 15 to 18, at which time the hearing was extended to July 24.
Final submissions will be heard Sept. 18 to 20, at which time the killer is expected to address the court. He was charged with first-degree murder but has pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder.
Earlier, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Paul Janke told Justice Robin Baird the killer should be subject to "indefinite" supervision, at least into his late 40s or early 50s. Asked by Crown prosecutor Wendy Stephen if he believes a seven-year sentence would be sufficient to protect the community, Janke replied, "In my opinion, absolutely not."
Janke, who was called by the Crown to testify, said during his interviews with the young man that the killer made "no expression of grief other than for himself."
Janke told the court that the young man poses a high risk to reoffend.
But Dr. Robert Ley, a Simon Fraser University psychology professor called by the defence to testify, said under cross-examination last Wednesday he believes the killer to be "very remorseful.
"He showed genuine emotional distress when we discussed the crime," Ley said.
"I in no way believe he has the craft or the skill to be that deceitful," he told the court. "I think he's a very different person now than he was at the time of the offence."
Ley said he considers the young man to be in the "low-moderate to moderate" range of risk to re-offend.
"He made it clear to me he did not intend to kill the victim," Ley told the court.
The court has heard that the young man had sexually attacked three women in Burns Bog between April and July 2010, with escalating severity, before killing Szendrei in September.
"He's not an aggressive or violent person at all, except for these four incidents," Ley told the court
Wednesday.
Stephen charged the psychologist with putting the killer in the "best light" he can.
"Absolutely not," Ley replied.
"We'll have to agree to disagree," Stephen rejoined.
Ley and Janke's findings diverge on many fronts.
Janke told the court he didn't believe much of what the young man told him and Stephen suggested Ley had made a "fundamental error" by accepting the killer's account without critical analysis.
Ley suggested he saw "more detailed commentary" from the killer because he's "not a confrontational assessor."
The young man found Janke's interviewing approach "offensive," Ley told the court.
"He disliked Dr. Janke."
