Shrink makes excuses for dad who killed two kids during visitation (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

More on Dad GUY TURCOTTE, more excuses....

http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Weight+Turcotte+woes+killing+children+psychiatrist/4878205/story.html

Weight of Guy Turcotte's woes led to killing children: psychiatrist
Deep depression; 'He couldn't take any more'
By SUE MONTGOMERY, The Gazette June 2, 2011

Cardiologist Guy Turcotte wasn't suffering from schizophrenia, psychosis, manic depression or a personality disorder the night he stabbed his children to death.

The 39-year-old had always been in good physical health, had a flawless work record, and had never dabbled in drugs or delinquency as a teen.

So what possessed him on Feb. 20, 2009, to grip a knife with two hands and plunge it repeatedly into the tiny torsos of his children, Olivier, 5 and Anne-Sophie, 3, despite their painful moans?

He just couldn't take it any more. That was the conclusion drawn by Roch-Hugo Bouchard, a psychiatrist hired by the defence who spent more than two hours with Turcotte March 4 at the Rivière des Prairies detention centre.

Bouchard is the second psychiatrist called by the defence to say Turcotte, who is on trial for firstdegree murder, couldn't cope with the sudden changes in his life, such as the discovery of his wife having an affair with the couple's personal trainer, Martin Huot.

Turcotte had the classic symptoms of depression: trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, loss of energy, Bouchard said on the 30th day of the trial.

"It's a bit like being in sinking sand," Bouchard said. "The more he tries to get out, the more stuck he feels."

He said Turcotte's sadness throughout the six-year marriage to Isabelle Gaston began to deepen into a depression in December 2008, and that downward spiral was triggered by three events: Gaston had cosmetic surgery despite Turcotte's protests, Gaston took the children to Cuba over Christmas, when Turcotte was on call at St. Jérôme's Hotel Dieu Hospital and a disastrous New Year's Eve night on the town with another couple.

Christmas was an important holiday for Turcotte and he felt that it should be celebrated together as a family, testified Bouchard, who is an assistant director at the Institute for Mental Health in Quebec City.

When Turcotte and Gaston rang in 2009 at a bar with Huot and his wife, Patricia Giroux, Turcotte felt Gaston was having fun with everyone but him.

"After 2008, something broke and things got much more difficult," Bouchard said.

A key date in Turcotte's decline into despair was Jan. 14, 2009, when Giroux informed Turcotte she'd discovered a string of romantic emails between their spouses.

"He was very angry and devastated," Bouchard said. "The day before, he didn't think it was possible (that his wife was having an affair) and now the proof was before him."

Turcotte felt as though he'd been replaced as a father, husband and friend.

The night he killed the children, Turcotte was exhausted, sad and weak, said Bouchard, who was in the courtroom through most of Turcotte's two weeks of testimony.

"It was the accumulation of everything on his shoulders and he couldn't take any more," Bouchard said.

As a result, Turcotte was incapable of judging the nature of his actions.