A Vancouver provincial court judge has rejected a not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder defence in a 2021 “vicious attack” in a city courtroom that left the victim with life-threatening injuries.
On Feb. 14, Judge Kathryn Denhoff found Qin Qin Shen guilty of attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon.
The charges arose from a hammer and knife attack by Shen on Jing Lu. The pair had a contentious relationship for years starting in 2005, with a growing online feud that eventually spilled into the courts.
The court heard Shen believed Lu wanted to kill her and her son by boiling him in oil.
It culminated with Shen going to a May 25, 2021 civil hearing at the Vancouver Law Courts and attacking Lu with a hammer and knife, Denhoff said.
The judge had to decide if Shen had been suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the incident, and if she knew her actions were wrong.
After hearing from three psychiatrists and looking at medical reports from before and after the incident, she concluded Shen had gone to the courthouse with the intent to harm Lu.
“Ms. Shen had specific intent to kill Ms. Lu,” Denhoff said. “I find Ms. Shen guilty of all four charges.”
Key to Denhoff’s findings were:
- Shen had requested an in-person hearing despite past online ones;
- had been drinking beforehand for courage;
- had the weapons in a bag;
- had dressed completely in red to cover blood spatter;
- had checked up and down the hall before the attack; and
- had aimed at vulnerable body areas.
Denhoff said Lu felt something on her head as the assault began.
“She turned around and saw Ms. Shen start hitting her with a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other,” Denhoff said. “She could feel blood running down her back.”
The court clerk hit a panic button that brought sheriffs running.
Shen was arrested while Lu went to hospital with injuries to her head, a major vein, a lung and her heart.
Had the heart been punctured, the attack would have been fatal, the judge said.
Denhoff said Lu exclaimed either, “She’s trying to kill me” or “she’s going to kill me.”
The hammer was a fairly standard item while the knife was a fish filleting tool, double-sided and about six inches long, court heard.
After the arrest, Denhoff said Shen had said, “She was going to hurt me. It’s her fault. It’s her fault.”
Not credible
The court heard Shen had requested the in-person hearing due to hearing problems. However, the judge said, nowhere else were there claims of hearing problems. It was an excuse to be in the company of Lu, said Denhoff.
Shen claimed she had begun carrying the knife and hammer in her bag in 2009 for protection. However, as a chef, the judge noted, Shen would have known a sharp knife would be problematic when looking through a bag. Denhoff discounted that testimony.
She also rejected the idea Shen lived in fear of Lu. The court heard Shen had barricaded herself in her bedroom at one point, fearing Lu would break in and attack. The judge rejected the suggestion of such fears, noting Shen had taken public transit to court the day of the attack with no such fear.
Denhoff also rejected the idea Shen was drunk and couldn't recall the events. She remembered the court date and found the courthouse and the correct room after dealing with a COVID-19 check at the entrance to the building, court heard.
Shen said she had quickly drunk a bottle of wine before leaving for court. Denhoff rejected claims she was drunk, saying the evidence was contradictory. Courthouse video showed Shen had balanced on one leg outside the courtroom while checking inside her bag. Denhoff said the feat was one most sober people could not have accomplished.
As for the courthouse videos, there was no indication of impairment, Denhoff said.
Further, she said, if Shen didn’t believe her actions were morally wrong, why would she have been blaming Lu after her arrest?
She also rejected Shen’s suggestion she always dressed in red given she arrived to court with a small suitcase that contained no red clothing. The suitcase contained a selection of clothes, toiletries and a computer.
Denhoff said that was consistent with either being ready to flee for some reason of expecting to go to jail.
And, Denhoff questioned, while Shen denied the hammer couldn’t cause injury, why then would she carry it for protection? If Shen were scared of Lu, the judge added, why did she not ask for protection of a sheriff while in court?
She called Shen “an unreliable witness who is not credible.”
The judge accepted one psychiatrist’s assessment that Shen had the capacity to know attacking Lu was wrong by society’s standards.
The voices
Part of the defence was that Shen had been hearing voices that told her to attack Lu. She claimed she told her family doctor about it but it did not appear in medical records.
That doctor had referred her to a psychiatrist. However, Denhoff noted Shen had not told the second doctor about the voices, saying she thought it was no big deal.
In 2017, Shen began complaining of mental health issues she attributed to Lu, including poor sleep and suicidal ideation.
In detention, she continued to claim she heard voices despite at one point denying seeing or hearing things that weren’t there. Medical staff reported never seeing her responding to internal stimuli, the court heard.
“I cannot conclude Ms. Shen was psychotic at the time of the attack,” Denhoff said.
The case will now go to scheduling to set dates for sentencing submissions by Crown prosecutor Jacinta Lawton and defence lawyer Scott Wright.
