Okanagan man who stabbed patient, attacked hospital staff will remain in custody

An Okanagan man with a long history of attacking health care workers, and who stabbed a patient while at Kelowna General Hospital, will remain in custody at a psychiatric hospital.

According to a recently published July 16, 2025, BC Review Board decision, Justin Ryan Patrick Robinson will remain in psychiatric care with the possibility of unescorted access to the community only if his mental state improves. 

“(Robinson) continues to constitute a significant threat to the safety of the public,” the BC Review Board ruled. “(He) has an extensive history of violent behaviour, including assaults and assaults with weapons on various people in his immediate vicinity when unwell.”

Robinson made headlines in 2023 when he stabbed a patient at Kelowna General Hospital before slashing a security guard across the face.

The 45-year-old has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 1999 including possession of stolen property, theft, causing a disturbance and damaging property. He also has two convictions for assault, four convictions for assaulting a police officer, two convictions for assault with a weapon and one conviction for assault causing bodily harm.

While at the Okanagan Correctional Centre for charges related to the Kelowna hospital stabbing and other incidents, he was on his way to a psychiatric appointment when he spat in a prison guard’s face.

“Robinson was apparently acting under a delusion that a ‘Storm lady’ and her companions were displeased with him because he had not harmed enough people and he spat at the officer in an attempt to appease her,” the decision reads.

He was later found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

At the time, he was facing a multitude of other charges for violence, including attacking a cab driver who wanted payment in advance, and punching the Mountie who arrested him at Kelowna General in the face. He’d also attacked two prison guards while in custody.

Robinson was first diagnosed with schizophrenia and intellectual disability in 1998, and while he has a lengthy history of unprovoked violence, the decision said a defence of not criminally responsible isn’t available because his violent behaviours occurred because of his substance-induced psychosis, as well as disappointment, frustration, irritability or anger.

He was given a total sentence of 365 days in jail.

However, spitting in the prison guard’s face was different because he acted on hallucinations coming from his delusions, and therefore was not criminally responsible.

Finding Robinson not criminally responsible means he’s spent considerably more time in custody than if he served a regular jail sentence.

The decision also gave a glimpse as to the violence health care workers sometimes experience.

In 2023, he punched a doctor in the head four times while being assessed. He subsequently assaulted the doctor who took over from the one he’d assaulted earlier. He also assaulted a nurse at the Kelowna General Hospital that same year.

The decision said he has heard voices consistently since he was about 18 and that these voices have told him in the past not to kill himself when he was considering doing so.

“(He has) a superficial understanding of his illness and lack of understanding that his current symptoms are related to his schizophrenia,” the decision said. “His psychotic illness has proven refractory to treatment, and the accused presents with ongoing hallucinations and delusions, including command hallucinations. His thoughts remain somewhat disorganized.”

The BC Review Board ruled that Robinson had to remain in custody and his situation would be reviewed in 12 months.

He could be granted unescorted trips in the community, depending on his mental state and only on the decision of psychiatric staff.