Both of Kimberly Proctor's killers were full and active participants in her murder, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Johnston concluded Monday.
In releasing his reasons for sentencing Kruse Hendrik Wellwood, 17, and Cameron Alexander Moffat, 18, as adults, Johnston found the harm they caused and the seriousness of the offence was obvious.
"But their degree of responsibility is not so clear. This is because as time passed, each of these young men has tended to minimize his participation and point to the other as being more responsible," said Johnston. "It's not really possible to sort out the truth here."
Court-ordered psychological and psychiatric reports helped Johnston assess the age, maturity, character, background and previous criminal history of the youths, who were 16 and 17 at the time of the crime.
The reports show Wellwood to be a highly intelligent, articulate and mature 17-year-old. He feels superior to others and disrespects the property of others. He has set fires and has little regard for rules and expectations of his school or anyone else, experts found.
Wellwood is an only child. His mother and father separated when he was 18 months old. He lived with his maternal grandparents until he was 12, when his relationship with his grandfather deteriorated and he and his mother moved out.
Wellwood has had some irregular contact with his father but that stopped in 2001 when his father sentenced to life in prison for raping and murdering 16-year-old Cherish Billy Oppenheim in Merritt. During his teens, Wellwood was defiant, argumentative, verbally abusive and sometimes physically violent. He started having trouble in school in Grade 5, and then became increasingly difficult to manage at school and at home. His academic progress had its ups and down. He was classified as having intensive behavioural needs. Wellwood has shown little respect for his mother and has been verbally and physically abusive towards her.
Moffat has two older half-brothers and a younger sister. According to the report, he suffered some form of sexual abuse when he was three years old. He was difficult to manage as a child and engaged in destructive and dangerous behaviour form an early age.
His parents separated when he was nine years old and he was affected by his father's absence, Johnston told the court.
Moffat refused to go to after-school care which left him with unsupervised time. When his mother changed her job to look after him after school, he rebelled at her attempt to impose structure on him. Moffat was in frequent conflicts with his family and others and struggled in school academically and in his relationship with other students.
The experts found Moffat to be mature. They described his character as rebellious, evasive, glib, superficial and impulsive. He engages in pathological lying and has narcissistic traits.
Moffat was nearly an adult at the time of the killing. He had been employed from time to time and planned to join the military. His intelligence is difficult to assess. He is below average in some areas and shows exceptional intelligence in others.
The two killers met in elementary school and they became close friends.
"They shared an interest in computers," said Johnston. "These interests expanded to fantasies of violence and sexuality. And what they obtained, they shared on their computers."
One of the main principles of sentencing is rehabilitation, but in this case the experts believe both Wellwood and Moffat are at high risk to reoffend.
Wellwood has deviant sexual disorders and strong traits of psychopathy that are better treated in the adult system, the reports concluded, because the youth system has less experience in dealing with people who have committed sexually motivated homicides.
Wellwood is at very high risk of committing a similar crime in the future if he is released untreated and unsupervised into the community in the next 25 to 30 years, said Johnston. He noted that Wellwood did not say he will seek treatment in a letter that was read to the court last week.
Any substantial improvement is frankly unrealistic especially in light of the severity of his psychopathy, concluded forensic psychiatrist Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessy.
In Moffat's case, the experts doubted his sincerity and remorse. They believed he requires extensive and long term treatment and should be managed and monitored for the rest of his life. Moffat is a very disturbed young man at high risk to reoffend, said O'Shaughnessy.
"He will be an ongoing risk for many years to come."