A patient from the Quebec Mental Health University Institute who threatened to “clean up” the staff with an accomplice was sentenced to 30 months.
Bipolar, lugged around with foster families since the age of three and under public curatorship, Dereck Antonio Hervieux Di Bernardo was housed at the Institut universitaire en santé Mental de Quebec (IUSMQ) in the summer of 2019. ‘Exchanges on Messenger with an accomplice, they had discussed “killing people” during a shootout in revenge against the staff of the IUSMQ.
It was a friend of the accused, who had access to her Facebook, who alerted the police. The one who spent the equivalent of 26 months in detention ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of threat.
At the sentencing stage, Di Bernardo told the judge he was “capable of changing” and repeated that he “wrote nonsense” at the time of the offense. However, he expressed the desire to get out of prison, in particular in order to consult a psychiatrist to have the right medication and control his bipolar disorder.
Despite the fairly long period of pre-trial detention, prosecutor Me Jean-Sébastien Lebel worried about the dangerousness of the accused. “The fruit is not ripe,” he said, emphasizing public safety.
Justice Rena Émond agreed to part of the Crown’s request, but also agreed with defense counsel, Ms.e Julie Bégin, who asked that Di Bernardo have the necessary follow-ups quickly. “The sooner we will intervene with him […] the faster we will protect society, ”said the judge.
Thus, the young man of 25 years will serve 96 additional days for a total of 30 months after which he will return to the IUSMQ, where an educational plan will be established. Di Bernardo will not be able to use social media for the next three years, however.
His accomplice, Alain Ruel-Kirouac had already received a sentence of 14 months of detention.
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