Marlene Bird and her partner Patrick Lavallee. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
A psychiatrist who has assessed thousands of offenders across Canada says the circumstances surrounding the attempted murder of Marlene Bird are unlike anything he’s ever heard.
Dr. Shaberham Lohrasbe has testified on court-ordered psychological evaluations at nearly 150 dangerous offender hearings in the country – many of them for high-profile murderers – and was on the stand at Leslie Black’s dangerous offender hearing on Wednesday.
“We have a man here who is an outlier,” Lohrasbe said of Black, because his “history of violence is absolutely trivial” up until the remarkable escalation of violence against Bird in June of 2014.
The June night started with Black, who is now 31 years old, drinking with Bird and then having sex with her. He then beat her and set her on fire after she told him she was going to report him for rape, which left Bird wheelchair-bound and forced her to have numerous skin graft surgeries.
These days, Bird is living in Timber Bay with her partner Patrick Lavallee. Outside court, the two said they frequently struggle with the wheelchair in snowy areas and also struggle to find transportation from medical appointments.
Lohrasbe said ignoring a helpless human being on fire is “truly frightening,” and he’s never seen a case where this happened.
This isn’t the only part of the case Lohrasbe finds exceptional.
He told court he’s only encountered two or three people who have “seen their mothers killed in front of their eyes,” and Black is one of them. Black’s mother was stabbed to death by a partner on Black’s ninth birthday.
That experience, combined with a childhood marked by Black’s mother’s alcohol abuse and violent relationships, and a lack of stability in foster care, make his childhood one of the most traumatic Lohrasbe has ever seen.
Lohrasbe said most people stop committing an assault after the victim has been rendered helpless – but that was neither the case in Black’s mother’s murder nor in Black’s assault on Bird.
Black’s inability to communicate about what led him to behave the way he did with Bird as well as the shortage of similar cases to draw from have left Lohrasbe unable to provide a comprehensive plan of what is needed to treat Black and mitigate his risk of reoffending.
If Black is labeled as a dangerous offender, the judge must make special considerations for Black’s threat to the public safety when delivering the sentence and ordering conditions. At the highest end of the spectrum, Black could end up spending life in prison.
Lohrasbe said right now he views Black as a high risk, because even if Black commits only one more act of violence in his life it has the potential for “catastrophic consequences.” He said upon release, the most important thing to do is ensure a continuity of therapy while Black transitions back into the community.
On cross-examination, defence and Lohrasbe agreed that Black’s ability to manage his substance abuse disorder – which involves the use of opiates, intravenous drugs, alcohol, and marijuana – will be the single-most important factor in his ability to reintegrate into society upon release.
“He must buy into the notion that he can never use again,” Lohrasbe said.
He said Black is motivated to deal with his addictions because he has health issues like Hepatitis C and HIV, which are greatly affected by drug use.
Also important from a therapy perspective is a personality trait Black has developed called “alexythemia,” which is a general flattening of emotions or sense of “numbness” someone forms as a coping mechanism to protect himself from feeling future pain, Lohrasbe said. He added the trait is not a medically recognized disorder, and was likely formed in the aftermath of Black’s mother’s death.
Testimony in the dangerous offender hearing will continue with a defence psychiatrist taking the stand on Thursday.