Man who killed Halifax gay rights activist discharged from psychiatric hospital

CITYnews halifax / By Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — A mentally ill Nova Scotia man who killed a well-known gay rights advocate in 2012 has been discharged from the psychiatric hospital where he has been receiving treatment since he was first placed in custody there 11 years ago.

The release of Andre Noel Denny, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teenager, was approved by the province’s Criminal Code Review Board on Nov. 27.

The board’s disposition order does not give reasons for Denny’s discharge.

Denny was first sent for treatment at the East Coast Forensic Hospital in the Halifax area in January 2012 after he was declared not criminally responsible for an earlier assault because of his mental illness. The verdict meant Denny was incapable of appreciating the nature of his actions or knowing that they were wrong.

In that case, Denny was accused of drinking vodka and beating a woman who laughed at him for suggesting the devil was in the basement of his home in Membertou, N.S., in June 2011. “He admitted to striking the victim in the face with an open hand,” a disposition order said at the time.

When he was admitted to the secure hospital in September 2011, Denny was “agitated, demanding, argumentative, intrusive, loud, disorganized and paranoid,” the board said at the time. He was also dependent on alcohol, marijuana, opiates and others substances, the board said.

But with adjustments to his medication, his condition improved and he was granted supervised outings in early February 2012.

On the night of April 16, 2012, Denny failed to return to the forensic hospital after receiving a one-hour unescorted pass. That’s when he attacked 49-year-old Raymond Taavel on Gottingen Street in downtown Halifax.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Denny got into an argument with Taavel outside a gay bar, punched him in the head and slammed his face into the pavement several times.

Denny later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and on March 24, 2016, was sentenced to just under eight years in custody.

During a sentencing hearing, Judge Peter Rosinski said the assault was motivated by “generalized anger,” fuelled in part by Denny’s psychosis and abuse of crack cocaine and alcohol. The judge said Denny was a “significant threat to public safety.”

Denny completed the sentence but was sent back to the forensic hospital because of the earlier offence.

Under the board’s latest order, Denny must adhere to certain conditions. Among other things, he must maintain his mental health, abstain from alcohol and certain drugs and remain in the province, where he must follow recommendations from a mental health team and live at an approved address.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2023.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press