HALIFAX – An associate dean at Dalhousie University has reasonable grounds to believe a medical student could stab her daughter, a provincial court judge decided Tuesday as he imposed a six-month peace bond on Stephen Gregory Tynes.

Judge Dan MacRury restricted Tynes’ behaviour and access to weapons, after the student told his psychiatrist he had grown frustrated with Dal’s medical school and mused about a stabbing and a mass shooting.

“He was feeling that he was being treated unfairly and that he was being forced out of the medical school,” the psychiatrist, Terry Chisholm, had testified on June 6.

Chisholm testified Tynes talked about stabbing the daughter of Dr. Evelyn Sutton, the associate dean of undergraduate medical education. Sutton had been working with Tynes to improve his academic performance. Her daughter, Ellen MacDonald, was also in the medical program.

Chisholm said Tynes told her he wasn’t considering suicide, but he later said he would consider taking his own life if he “took a gun and killed 10 or 15 people at the medical school.”

Chisholm called Halifax police on Aug. 20, 2015.

On Tuesday, MacRury told Tynes it was reasonable for Sutton to believe she and her daughter would be injured.

“After hearing Dr. Sutton, it’s clear that on a subjective basis there’s no question that she has a reasonable basis to fear Mr. Tynes,” MacRury said.

“Having looked at the totality of the circumstances, I am of the view that she did have an objective basis for that fear … Any father or mother who received a call like that would be shaken to their knees.”

Tynes was scheduled to stand trial earlier this month on charges of uttering threats to cause bodily harm and engaging in threatening conduct. But the bulk of the case was reduced to a peace bond hearing after the Crown withdrew three of four charges.

At the time, Crown prosecutor Eric Taylor said there wasn’t a reasonable prospect of conviction.

Tynes is also charged with unauthorized possession of a prohibited device — an overcapacity cartridge magazine. A trial on that count is scheduled for Aug. 19.

The Crown had asked for a 12-month peace bond, the maximum permitted under the law. But MacRury said a shorter term was appropriate because Tynes was seeking psychiatric help and he had complied with previously imposed conditions over the past 10 months.

The conditions of the peace bond state that Tynes must keep the peace, refrain from contacting Sutton or her daughter and to stay more than 50 metres from their home or places of employment.

Tynes is also restricted from possessing any firearm, ammunition, explosive or restricted weapon.

Defence lawyer Stan MacDonald said his client has faced a difficult ordeal since last summer.

“The whole thing has had significant consequences for my client,” MacDonald said outside court. “It’s difficult because it raises that whole issue of: What do you say to your psychiatrist?”