Father of victim notes manipulative, psychopathic behaviour’
Editor:
My name is Bruce Turner and I am the father of Dana Turner.
First, I want to thank Kamloops This Week reporter Tim Petruk for reporting on the Mark Lindsay trial.
Petruk has been an excellent and direct source of information as the Kamloops court case unfolds.
I read with interest the three articles published over the last two weeks by KTW, in particular the online article on Friday, March 16, that detailed the verdict.
Upon reading the first two articles, I thought it unlikely the judge would go against the assessment of the psychiatrist — and my predictions were realized.
It seems the broader rights for the safety and security of society will be subordinated by individual rights and the opinion — and, that is all it is, in my view — of one of the most imprecise of all sciences.
If they can assess Lindsay now, why couldn’t the profession assess him properly before he was released after serving a mere 50 days for attempted murder?
If a bank manager stole money, who would rehire him to the same position?
Yet, a known offender can be released back into society and afforded ample opportunity to re-offend.
Why is the bar so low for criminals, yet so high for everybody else?
I would like to see confidence intervals placed around the psychiatric assessment, but more so around the probability that he will not commit another murder.
Should we be sacrificing the safety and security of society to the “persuasive” arguments of a psychiatrist?
Do we apply the precautionary principle to all things other than criminality?
How did the psychiatrist explain to the judge why Lindsay asked his cellmate victim to tell the guard that his pierced eye resulted from a fall from his bunk?
There is an on-off switch for schizophrenia, but I don’t think it is under voluntary control.
Sounds to me more like manipulative psychopathic behaviour.
At what point do the broader rights of society prevail against the rights of a self-professed murderer and a known re-offender?
If I had good reason to believe in the B.C. Review Board, I might change my mind.
Perhaps I am prejudging, but I have little reason to believe otherwise.
Lindsay was under the parole of a police chief and a loving mother for much of his life, yet that discipline and love did nothing to control his wanton ways as he committed one murder, or so he boasted, while under their watch.
How many more families will have to suffer the anguish that we have endured?
How many more children will be left without the loving embrace of a mother and have a lifetime to ponder the void?
I am under no delusions that justice will ever be delivered for Dana or her boys.
This is not a matter of repaying a $10 bill and settling a debt.
Dana is gone forever.
The beautiful memories of a beautiful daughter are never far from my mind and I hope, though in vain I suspect, that at some point in the future, they will subvert the recurrent intrusive thoughts of what did actually happen to her.
KTW has asked to see the psychiatrist’s report
I, too, will be anxious to read it.
Bruce Turner
St. John’s
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