The fate of a man found not criminally responsible for the death of a Toronto police officer now rests with the Ontario Review Board, which must decide where he goes next.
Richard Kachkar was remanded into custody Wednesday, after a jury found him not criminally responsible for the 2011 death of Sgt. Ryan Russell.
The verdict followed a seven-week trial, during which psychologists argued that Kachkar was in a psychotic state in the early morning hours of Jan. 12, 2011, when he stole a snowplow and fatally struck Russell.
Sometime in the next 45 days, Kachkar will have a disposition hearing at the ORB, the provincial body that reviews the status of those who have been found to be not criminally responsible or unfit to stand trial for criminal offences on account of a mental disorder.
The board is made up of retired judges, lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists and members of the public.
People who are deemed not responsible for crimes by way of mental disorder are typically sent to mental-health facilities for an indeterminate period of time. Their cases are reviewed annually, and can be released conditionally or absolutely when the ORB decides they no longer pose a significant threat to public safety.
Dr. Alexander Simpson, a forensic psychiatrist at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, said the review board must decide if a person remains a threat.
“If you run the NCR defence, and the jury accepts it, then that is the moral obligation back on the accused to undergo processes of care and treatment to understand what went wrong for them and to ensure that they are responsible about how they live their life going forward.”
