Charlotte Lafferty's murderer deemed high risk, on 1st day of sentencing

A psychiatrist who examined a 20-year-old man being sentenced for first-degree murder says he is a high risk to commit more violent crime and requires "extensive" psychological treatment to reduce that risk.

The testimony came during the first day of a week-long sentencing hearing for the man who brutally murdered and sexually assaulted 23-year-old mother Charlotte Lafferty on March 22, 2014. Lafferty's partially-clothed body was found in blood-stained snow near the Fort Good Hope seniors housing complex.

The man cannot be identified because he was 17 at the time he killed Lafferty.

Forensic psychiatrist Mahnoor Sultana headed up a team that examined the man over three weeks at Alberta Hospital in Edmonton in preparation for the sentencing.

He is intellectually challenged, she said. He scored 74-75 on an IQ test, lower than 96 per cent of the Canadian population.

"The main thing that was picked up was the lack of empathy or remorse," Mahnoor said, referring to testing for antisocial disorders.

The doctor said the man also does not accept responsibility for his actions. She referred to a report prepared on the man in 2014, when he was sentenced for assault causing bodily harm. In the report he said his victim deserved to be repeatedly kicked and beaten.

Manhoor said the man would require "extensive psychological intervention...for a lengthy period of time," to reduce his high risk of committing more violent crime.

The psychiatrist said she could not ask the man about the circumstances around the murder of Lafferty because he said he is appealing his conviction. Anything he said could be used against him during his appeal.

But when she asked him about how he thinks the death affected Lafferty's parents, he said he has already spent a lot of time in jail and focused on his parents' feelings about him being convicted and losing a second child after losing a daughter.

The loss of his sister came out during cross examination, when defence lawyer Charles Davison focused on the trauma his client has suffered.

Davison said at age 16 the man found his younger sister frozen to death in the snow. At age 5 or 6 he was sexually abused. During his pre-teens and early teens he was bullied. He's witnessed domestic violence at home. Davison also suggested the man saw his father get badly beaten by a group of men.

Davison suggested most of that trauma has gone untreated, and accounts for the psychiatrist's view of the man as "detached" and "numb."