Dad tells B.C. court son in unhealthy state of mind before prison suicide
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man says his son was in a “fragmented” state of mind just days before he hanged himself in a solitary confinement prison cell where he didn’t belong.
Robert Roy told a B.C. Supreme Court trial challenging the use of indefinite confinement that he was distressed to learn his son wanted to be transferred from medium-security Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford to Kent Institution, a maximum-security penitentiary in nearby Agassiz.
Court heard Christopher Roy, 37, arrived at Matsqui and was immediately placed in a segregation cell, where he used a ligature to kill himself two months later in June 2015.
His father testified Wednesday that he learned from Correctional Service Canada documents he obtained through a freedom of information request that his son was placed in isolation because there was nowhere else to put him.