Two accused in Canada Day bomb plot make court appearance
Posted August 7, 2013 12:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The lawyer for one of two suspects in an alleged terrorism plot to bomb the BC legislature on Canada Day says his client has been certified under the province’s mental-health law and is currently in a forensic hospital.
John Nuttall was charged last month along with his girlfriend, Amanda Korody, in what the RCMP have described as an al-Qaeda-inspired plan to use pressure cooker bombs to target festivities on the national holiday.
Nuttall’s lawyer, Tom Morino, says his client is currently in a forensic hospital near Vancouver after he was certified under BC’s Mental Health Act, though he said he wasn’t familiar with the details.
“I’ve received no official information, one way or the other, about the assessment,” says Morino.
The lawyer adds the only reason he knows details of his client’s hospitalization is because Nuttall called him and told him. Morino has not received any official notice from police or the Crown.
The case was delayed last month because Korody had to get her own lawyer and legal aid funding had to get sorted out, which is still in the works.
Korody is represented by a different lawyer, Mark Jette, though Jette was not at the latest court appearance and couldn’t be reached.
The pair appeared for a brief appearance in BC Supreme Court, where Korody blew a kiss toward Nuttall as a judge adjourned the case until September 20.
Morino says it could have been a bail hearing, but it wasn’t necessary.
“They can conduct a bail hearing whenever we wish, but until such time, as I have some sort of a reasonable proposed plan in place, it’s really a waste of time.”
Meantime, he’s still waiting for Crown to disclose the details of its case against Nuttall.
“We’ve received a preliminary disclosure, what I would call an executive summary, I suppose, is the best way to characterize it,” he says.
“But the volumes of material that I anticipate we will be receiving, I have no doubt will be received on or before the next court appearance.”
Morino declined to say whether Nuttall suffers from any mental illness, though Nuttall has a documented history of drug use and was taking methadone to treat his addiction.
