Vernon man who killed, dismembered friend loses bid for absolute discharge

CONTENT ADVISORY

VERNON – A schizophrenic Vernon man, who was found not criminally responsible for killing his friend and then chopping up his body, has been refused an absolute discharge by the British Columbia Review Board.

Kenneth Scott Barter has been living in the community since January 2015 following four years in a psychiatric hospital after killing his friend in 2011. Barter receives an annual psychiatric review each year but appealed the 2018 decision arguing he should be granted an absolute discharge and allowed in the community without conditions.

The British Columbia Review Board denied his appeal Aug. 15 stating that Barter remains a "significant threat to public safety." The review board's findings state Barter has "continuing inflexibility, rigid thinking, and sense of entitlement."

Barter's offence occurred Jan. 10, 2011 when after drinking in a bar with a friend, referred to only in court documents as N.M., the two men spent the night at Barter's apartment. The following morning Barter hit N.M. on the head with a hammer leaving him unconscious.

He then placed a plastic bag over the friends head and dragged the body into the bathtub and left to go and buy some cigarettes. Upon returning the apartment he cut N.M. body in pieces, double-bagged the parts and placed them in the freezer and the fridge, an idea he got from a T.V. show.

He then cleaned up the apartment and his clothes and disposed of the knife and meat cleaver he had used. The following day he told his parents what he had done. Prior to the offence, Barter had no history of violence.

In January 2011, Barter was found criminally not responsible on the account of a mental disorder following a charge of second-degree murder and he was detained in a psychiatric hospital until January 2015, when he was allowed back into the community on a conditional discharge.

The review board's decision says that at the time when Barter made the 2018 appeal he was living in a semi-independent apartment operated by a foundation that assists persons who have a mental illness and sees an outreach worker weekly.

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