Li wins bid for escorted trips

WINNIPEG—A man who beheaded and cannibalized a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba has won his bid to leave the grounds of the mental hospital where he is being kept.
A Criminal Code review board has ruled that Vince Li’s treatment team may grant him short escorted trips into Selkirk.

The review board said the passes will start at 30 minutes and increase incrementally to a maximum of full days.
The board also said the passes only should be granted if Li’s treatment team believes his condition is stable and that it would be “appropriate and safe for him to leave the locked ward.”
Li will have to be escorted at all times by a staff member and a security officer.
“It’s terrible. It’s disgusting,” Nadine McLean, the victim’s stepmother, said yesterday after she learned about the decision.
“It’s kind of a waste going to the review board every year when he’s going to get whatever he asks for.”
The passes can be issued starting May 24.
Li was found not criminally responsible for the July, 2008 death of Tim McLean, a young carnival worker who was sitting next to Li on a bus near Portage la Prairie.
Li initially was confined to a locked wing of the Selkirk Mental Health Centre, but in 2010 was given the right to escorted walks on the hospital grounds.
Li’s psychiatrist said the 44-year-old has responded well to treatment and asked the review board earlier this week to let Li take trips into town.
The Crown did not oppose the idea but the victim’s mother, Carol DeDelley, said Li should never be allowed out in public.
Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson said yesterday he has to respect the decision of the board.
The mental hospital has been in community for years and other patients who committed horrific acts likely have been walking around the city before.
“I just hope they’ve made the right decision,” he remarked. “I have to worry about the safety of all the citizens in Selkirk.”