A Vernon woman found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder after she attempted to abduct a child has been denied a release from a psychiatric hospital, according to a decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Gabriel Hunter Gibson, 42, had appealed a B.C. Review Board decision that denied her release from the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, where she has been held since September 2018.
Gibson was incarcerated after an incident in 2016 in which she grabbed a four-year-old boy by the wrist on a bus, telling the boy's great grandmother that the boy was her child. Another passenger on the bus prevented the attempted abduction, according to the decision.
A report from the Review Board said Gibson had been diagnosed with treatment-resistant schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, and substance use disorder, noting her psychotic symptoms included delusions that she had children in the community and could communicate with them "telepathically," and that they acknowledged her as their mother "through looks and glances" that conveyed a desire to be with her.
It wasn't Gibson's first attempt at abducting a child, as the Review Board noted she was found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder in 2017 after another attempted child abduction.
In Canadian law, people avoid being convicted of a crime if they are determined to be legally insane at the time of the offence.
At a hearing on the matter on June 17, Gibson expressed frustration at having spent so many years in custody due to her psychiatric status, as well as the side-effects of her medications, which she said cause her to sleep 16 hours a day. The Court of Appeal judge noted this frustration was "understandable."
The appeal court noted this was not the first time Gibson had appealed a decision by the Review Board to keep her in hospital, and upheld the Review Board's decision that she was not ready to leave the hospital.
"At this time, it cannot be said that the Board’s order is unreasonable or unsupported by the evidence, that it is based on a wrong decision on a question of law or that her continued detention would result in a miscarriage of justice," the decision states.
Gibson appeared before the Review Board in October 2022, at which time the panel noted there had been some improvement in her condition, despite the fact that she continued to have delusions about having a child. However, by the time she was reassessed in October 2023, the Board noted the improvement had been "reversed," and Gibson had tested positive for methamphetamine after having been allowed outside the hospital for a brief time.
The decision noted Gibson was hostile towards hospital staff members and believed she was being illegally detained, while insisting she had a child in the community. At one point in July 2023 she escaped the hospital and was unlawfully at large.
According to the decision, Gibson's physician provided the opinion that if she were discharged, "there was a high likelihood she would engage in violence" within days or weeks of her release. The physician said she would likely cease taking her medication, start using street drugs and experience "a rapid deterioration in her mental condition and become floridly psychotic, hostile and impulsive." The physician said in this circumstance, Gibson would be "highly likely" to again attempt to abduct a child.
The Review Board had found that Gibson's threat to the public could only be managed "within the confines of a strict custodial setting at the hospital."
In dismissing Gibson's appeal, the appeal court judge said that as long as Gibson lacks insight into her mental condition and refuses to abide by restrictions placed on her, her risk assessment may be "unlikely to change."