The mental state of a Quebec woman accused of abandoning her toddler earlier this summer will be the subject of the trial that begins Monday at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Que., courthouse.
Psychiatrist Marie-Michelle Boulanger, who evaluated the 34-year-old woman over 60 days, will be the only witness. The accused’s name is concealed by a publication ban to protect her daughter’s identity.
Her daughter was the subject of an intensive search when she was reported missing in June. She was found alive three days later on the side of a highway in Ontario, about 150 kilometres from where she had last been seen.
The defence and prosecution will have the opportunity to ask Boulanger questions about her evaluation of the mother after they disagreed over the interpretation of the findings, which were outlined in a report submitted last week.
Crown prosecutor Lili Prévost-Gravel said last Monday that they were not contemplating calling another expert for a second opinion or ask for a second psychiatric evaluation.
Judge Bertrand St-Arnaud will then have to decide whether the mother can be held criminally responsible for the charges laid against her — child abandonment and criminal negligence causing harm.
On June 15, the woman reported her daughter missing after she walked into a store in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., about 50 kilometres west of her home in Montreal. Store employees recalled her acting erratically and saying she’d lost her child.
On June 18, the girl was found by the side of Highway 417, near St-Albert, Ont.
A couple days later, the woman’s lawyer, Olivier Béliveau, said his client had been living in distress and needed help. She’s being detained at a psychiatric hospital in Montreal, the Institut national de psychiatrie légale Philippe-Pinel.
Prévost-Gravel said that trials are often needed when the facts are disputed, which is not the case here.
“What happened, happened. What we have to determine is if madame was able to know what she was doing and whether it was wrong or right, and it must be by virtue of a mental health problem,” she said.
The contents of the psychiatrist’s report will remain sealed until the trial.
