Latest news with #PhilippePinelInstitute
Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
Accused in attack on Jewish father in Montreal had ‘delirious ideas', judge says
Montreal Crime The man charged with attacking a Jewish father in front of the victim's young children last week has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine if he can be found criminally responsible for his alleged actions. Sergio Yanes Preciado, 23, appeared before Quebec Court Judge Martin Chalifour on Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse. He is charged with assault causing bodily harm. The victim was attacked Friday in Dickie-Moore Park in the Parc-Extension neighbourhood. The assault was recorded on video and shared on social media. While the victim is laying injured on the ground, the assailant is seen tossing what appears to be a kippah into a puddle of water. Today in Montreal Jewish father with 3 kids beaten in an unprovoked attack, seemingly by a disturbed person, words have consequences. @Val_Plante @SPVM why did it take for the SPVM over an hour to respond? — Mayer Feig (@mayerfeig) August 8, 2025 Preciado was arrested by Montreal police on Monday and charged on Tuesday. He was ordered to undergo a very quick mental health evaluation at the Montreal courthouse before he appeared again on Wednesday. While the report on the evaluation was placed under a seal, some of the findings of the criminologist who did the evaluation were mentioned in open court. '(Preciado) worked at a cinema until Easter; there were difficult moments for him. There was a question of consuming drugs. He seemed to have delirious ideas linked to his actions,' the judge said while summarizing the report, adding some of the details concerning his mental health were corroborated by Preciado's mother. 'The consumption of drugs does not seem to be connected to his mental health, but the criminologist concludes that an evaluation of his responsibility indicates (he should be evaluated),' Chalifour said. The judge also said the criminologist wrote that the hot weather experienced in Montreal on the day in question might have played a role in what happened. A lawyer who represented Preciado on Wednesday said the accused consents to undergoing the 30-day evaluation at the Philippe Pinel Institute. Preciado will be detained while he undergoes the evaluation. The case will return to court on Sept. 12. This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 3:33 PM.
CTV News
11-07-2025
- CTV News
Montreal mom accused of child abandonment to remain behind bars, undergo psychiatric assessment
Police and rescue workers search the woods beside a highway for a missing three-year-old girl in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press) A judge has ordered a Montreal mother charged with abandoning her three-year-old daughter on the side of a highway last month to remain in custody. The judge rendered the decision Friday morning at the Valleyfield courthouse and ordered the 34-year-old woman to undergo a psychiatric assessment within 30 days at the Philippe-Pinel Institute in Montreal. Wearing her hair down and a grey crewneck, she broke down in tears during the bail hearing after the judge issued the ruling. She had two guards with her. She will remain in custody pending her next court appearance on Aug. 8. The Crown prosecutor had requested that she not be released from jail. The mother was arrested June 16, one day after she walked into a store in Coteau-du-Lac, Que. telling workers that she had no memory of the whereabouts of her daughter for the past several hours. The toddler was missing for more than three days before being found alive — and alone — on the side of Highway 417 near St. Albert, Ont., by a police drone on June 18, following a massive search by more than 150 police officers in Quebec and Ontario. Following her arrest, the mother was charged with unlawful abandonment of a child. After appearing in court on July 3, she was charged with a second offence: criminal negligence causing bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. The name of the woman cannot be published in order to respect the privacy of the child, whose identity is protected by a publication ban. There is also a routine publication ban prohibiting any information relating to evidence presented at the bail hearing from being released. With files from CTV News' Olivia O'Malley.
Montreal Gazette
29-04-2025
- Montreal Gazette
Laval daycare crash: Bus driver found not criminally responsible for tragedy in which children died
Montreal Crime By Pierre Ny St-Amand, the man who drove a Laval city bus into a daycare, killing two children and seriously injuring six others, was found not criminally responsible for his actions due to a mental health problem. While reading from parts of a lengthy decision at the Laval courthouse Tuesday, Justice Éric Downs said the court was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that St-Amand, 53, was suffering from a psychosis on Feb. 8, 2023, when he crashed the bus into the daycare. 'It is recognized that the accused committed the acts. It is recognized that, at the moment, the accused had mental health problems that rendered him not criminally responsible according to the Criminal Code,' Downs said, ordering that St-Amand remain detained at the Philippe Pinel Institute, a psychiatric hospital, for the time being. 'His movements will not be free. He is detained.' Earlier this month, Downs heard testimony from two psychiatrists who agreed that St-Amand was in a state of psychosis when the tragedy occurred. The judge made several references to what psychiatrist Kim Bédard-Charrette said in court and in a detailed report filed to the court. Before the crash, St-Amand was preparing to marry a woman he had been in a relationship with for a long time. This involved having to provide documents he did not have to a notary, causing stress that, according to the psychiatrists, opened doors to a very traumatic past he had tried to forget. He was born in Cambodia in 1972, shortly before the Khmer Rouge began its totalitarian and violent rule of the country, between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of their political opponents. St-Amand's parents were killed and he was moved from one refugee camp to another while being looked after by a cousin. The cousin also was killed. In 1982, he was sent to Canada by a humanitarian agency with no documents concerning his past and was adopted by a family in Quebec. On the court record, St-Amand's date of birth is recorded as Jan. 1, 1972, but when he arrived in Canada, there was no record of when he was actually born. 'He wanted to kill himself, or destroy his past or destroy the base of his past,' said Downs, quoting Sylvain Faucher, the other psychiatrist who evaluated St-Amand. The judge will later hear arguments on how St-Amand should be detained in the future. The Crown has asked that he be declared a 'high risk' to public security. Downs said he will hear statements on Thursday from the families of the children who were killed or injured.
