The man who crashed his truck into a Maple Ridge sushi restaurant last year, killing two women and injuring six others, was found not criminally responsible following a trial which ended Thursday in New Westminster Supreme Court.

Brian Craig Irving was transferred from pre-trial custody to the Colony Farm Forensic Psychiatric Hospital as soon as the judgement was handed down.

“This has been an unusual trial in that no issue arises between the Crown or defence,” said Mr. Justice Ian Bruce Josephson. “There was no factual or legal issue on which they disagreed.”

Psychiatrists hired by both defence and Crown concurred that Irving was in a delirium likely caused by withdrawal from alcohol on Aug. 28 when his blue Dodge truck slammed into the restaurant during the dinner rush, killing Maija-Liisa Corbett, 19, and Hyeshim Oh, 46, as well as injuring other diners.

Irving, 52, was charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death and seven counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm in relation to the crash, but pleaded not guilty by reason of a mental disorder. He testified he had no recollection of the crash or the events up to a week after.

A chronic alcholic, Irving suffered a brain injury in January 2008, for which he required surgery.

He began drinking again in May or June 2008, only staying sober for a couple of months after the surgery.

At the time of the crash, Irving had quit drinking alcohol period.

Although he maintains he only has fleeting memories of what happened at Halu Sushi, Irving apologized in court on two occasions – saying sorry for the first time while testifying in his defence on Tuesday and asking the court to speak a second time on Wednesday.

He acknowledge the harm that he had done and hoped at some point in the future he could be forgiven.

Josephson, a justice who presided over the Air India trial, referred Irving’s case to a disposition review board, an independent tribunal established under the Criminal Code of Canada that deals with mentally disordered persons who have committed an offence.

The board must have a hearing for Irving within 45 days.

Irving will undergo an assessment to determine his risk to the public in that time.

A Crown Prosecutor will be making submissions to the panel.

Outside court, Irving’s lawyer John Conroy confirmed that besides assessing his client’s risk to the public, the board will also determine what conditions to impose on him so he never drinks again.

Conroy said the Halu Sushi tragedy alone is a huge incentive for his client to stay sober.

“People have to be educated that alcohol is our No. 1 drug problem,” added Conroy.

“[Alcohol withdrawal] is a life threatening condition, not just to the individual, but to members of the public.”

The judgement, however, rings hollow for the Corbin family, whose daughter Juanita and son Joel were pinned under Irving’s truck.

Juanita, 18, suffered facial injuries, broken bones and a brain injury, but the impact on Joel, 10 was much more serious.

He was in a coma for three weeks with a fractured skull, road rash all over his back and arms, paralysis to the right side of his face and an injury to his frontal lobe – the part of the brain responsible for emotion and behaviour. His corpus callosum, a structure holding both halves of the brain together, was also 90 per cent severed.

Although he is back at school, Joel attends class for half the day and requires a teacher’s aid all the time. He visits a psychologist daily.

Mike Corbin, their father, believes the judgement stresses that there are no consequences for a crime that has devastated not only his, but many other families.

“We are talking about taking somebody’s life and taking the quality of someone’s life on several accounts,” he said.

“We don’t have a justice system. What we have is a mechanism that just makes excuses.”