The Desmond Fatality Inquiry began at the Guysborough Municipal building in Guysborough, N.S., on Jan. 27, 2019.The Canadian Press
An inquiry into the death of a mentally-ill Afghan war veteran who killed his family and himself in rural Nova Scotia three years ago opened Monday with statements from a number of lawyers and testimony from the province’s chief medical examiner.
At one point, a lawyer who represents doctors at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S., told the hearing that Lionel Desmond had met with two doctors at the hospital on Jan. 1, 2017 – two days before he fatally shot his mother, wife and daughter in a home in nearby Big Tracadie, N.S., then turned the gun on himself.
Lawyer Stuart Hayne said Mr. Desmond met with Dr. Justin Clark in the hospital’s emergency room, where Dr. Clark noted Mr. Desmond was not in distress and did not have any suicidal or homicidal thoughts.
Hayne said Mr. Desmond later met with a psychiatrist, Dr. Faisal Rahman, who also reported that Mr. Desmond was “pleasant, forthcoming, engaging, respectful and a proud father.”
The lawyer said Dr. Rahman will tell the inquiry that Desmond confirmed he had an altercation with his wife Shanna earlier in the evening, and he asked if he could spend the night in the hospital to “reflect and regroup.”
The inquiry is expected to hear that Desmond was released the next day after Dr. Rahman confirmed the former infantryman did not require hospitalization.
The recollections of the doctors are important because some of Mr. Desmond’s friends and relatives have long complained he was turned away from the hospital before the killings.
Mr. Desmond, a 33-year-old retired corporal, had been diagnosed with PTSD after two tours in Afghanistan in 2007.
The inquiry will examine whether Mr. Desmond had access to mental health and domestic violence services – and whether he should have been able to buy a rifle.
It will also investigate whether the health care and social services providers he dealt with were trained to recognize occupational stress injuries or domestic violence.
The inquiry was supposed to begin last November, but the hearings in Guysborough, N.S., were adjourned when the parents of Mr. Desmond’s wife confirmed they had replaced their lawyer only the week before.
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