The court heard Lacrest was living with his parents in Peterborough, Ont., when he went missing late in the evening on April 19. At the time, local police asked for the public\u2019s help in locating him, noting there was concern for his well-being.<\/p>\n
On April 21, a form 1 mental health warrant was issued for Lacrest under the Mental Health Act. This would allow authorities to immediately transfer him to a psychiatrist facility for evaluation because there was an imminent risk of harm to himself or others.<\/p>\n
‘You are going to die’<\/p>\n
But Lacrest was no longer in his home province.<\/p>\n
He had been driving for four days and had not slept when he reached Slemon Park in the early morning hours of April 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The court heard the victim, a security supervisor on duty, found Lacrest banging on the door of Hangar 9 in the former RCAF base in Slemon Park, just outside of Summerside. (Nicola MacLeod\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The former Royal Canadian Air Force base has been converted into a business park. The victim was a security guard in the area and was on patrol when she found Lacrest banging on the door of one of the hangars.<\/p>\n
The security guard tried to get Lacrest to move along by honking and flashing her lights, but sensing something was off, the guard followed Lacrest and saw\u00a0 him behaving strangely, including making faces at her and pulling at his hair.<\/p>\n
The woman asked Lacrest if he was alright and, according to an agreed statement of facts read in court, he replied with a “derogatory remark.”<\/p>\n
The guard then followed Lacrest as he drove in an erratic manner. At this point, she was also taking pictures and had called the Summerside police.<\/p>\n
She was on the phone with police when Lacrest got out of his vehicle and approached hers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He struck her on the head and forced her out of the truck \u2014 pinning her against the side \u2014 and began choking her.<\/p>\n
As she began to lose consciousness, she fell to the ground. Lacrest then returned to his truck, got in and ran over her torso.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“She reported having to move her head to avoid it being crushed as the vehicle moved,” the Crown prosecutor told the court.<\/p>\n
“The audio recording captured Mr. Lacrest at one point laughing and at another point telling [the victim], ‘You are going to die.'”<\/p>\n
The victim was able to grab her cellphone and continued communicating with police, who would eventually arrive to find her on the ground, covered in blood.<\/p>\n
Police also found Lacrest nearby, sitting in his truck. They arrested him, but he became combative and “violent,” punching and biting at least three officers.<\/p>\n
Violence doesn’t necessarily end when the person who caused it is no longer in the picture.- Victim impact statement<\/p>\n
The victim was taken to hospital and treated for her significant injuries before being released. She had a broken nose, extensive cuts and injuries to both knees. Medical professionals described it as “astonishing” that she did not have further internal injuries.<\/p>\n
The victim has been in and out of hospital since the attack due to her “very serious psychological trauma,” the court documents describe.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Lacrest, you agree that those are the facts of the matter?” P.E.I. Chief Judge Krista MacKay asked Lacrest after the information was presented in court.<\/p>\n
“Yes I do, your honour,” Lacrest answered from a video room in Hillsborough Hospital with a calm, even tone \u2014 a stark contrast to the person described on court documents.<\/p>\n
Moved to psychiatric hospital, found NCR<\/p>\n
Lacrest was originally taken to the Summerside jail, but he has since moved to P.E.I.\u2019s only psychiatric facility. In the last five months Lacrest has had several assessments that have been filed with the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An out-of-province forensic psychiatrist determined he was eligible for a defence that exempted him of criminal responsibility due to the “particularly acute” episode of mania and psychosis he was experiencing at the time.<\/p>\n
Lacrest\u2019s lawyer Daniel Gallant said the psychiatrist\u2019s report was “quite complete and quite precise.” While the report has not been made public, Gallant said he echoed the author\u2019s findings that his client had a pre-existing condition and was hallucinating at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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P.E.I. Chief Judge Krista MacKay agreed to find Lacrest not criminally response (NCR) after a hearing on Monday. He had previously appeared in court several times, but the judge was waiting on a psychiatric assessment that was delivered earlier in September. (Brian Higgins\/CBC)<\/p>\n
“He was chasing creatures that did not exist. There seemed to be a large conspiracy,” Gallant told the judge. “We\u2019re asking the court to find Mr. Lacrest not criminally responsible.”<\/p>\n
Gallant entered Lacrest\u2019s pleas as not guilty by virtue of mental disorder to charges of attempted murder, driving in a way that endangered the public, and three counts of assaulting a police officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacKay accepted the report and those findings, but chose to stay the charge of assault with a weapon on the grounds that the act of running the victim over with a vehicle was covered under both attempted murder and dangerous operation of a vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I will refer the matter for disposition to the Criminal Code Review Board,” MacKay said.<\/p>\n