Family of man found not criminally responsible in parents' deaths suing health officials

The family of a couple killed by their son in 2021 is suing Manitoba health officials, alleging the man sought help for mental health issues before the killings but did not get adequate care.

Last week, Trevor Farley, 39, was found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder in the Oct. 27, 2021, deaths of his parents, Judy Swain and Stuart Farley. Farley also attacked his former supervisor at a Winnipeg hospital on the same day.

A statement of claim filed Tuesday with Manitoba Court of King's Bench by three of his siblings — Russell Farley, Paul Farley and Sharon MacLeod — alleges the Mental Health Crisis Response Centre in Winnipeg failed to properly care for Trevor when he went there for help a day before the killings.

It names as defendants the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the Winnipeg-Churchill Health Region — the legal entities responsible for health-care services and facilities in Winnipeg — as well as the provincial health organization, Shared Health.

The statement of claim says on or about Oct. 26, 2021, Trevor went to the Mental Health Crisis Response Centre — next to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg — in an effort to seek assistance for mental health issues and spent the night there.

Between 12:24 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 27, he was assessed by a clinician at the crisis centre and reported experiencing "delusions and hallucinations as well as suicidal thoughts," the statement of claim says. 

A few hours later — around 8:50 a.m.— he was assessed by a physician assistant at the centre and it was decided he should undergo an involuntary psychiatric assessment, the statement of claim said. At that point, a physician at the centre completed what's known as a "Form 4."

A Form 4 allows an individual to be taken to a psychiatric facility for an assessment by a psychiatrist when they are either unwilling or unable to consent to a voluntary assessment.

If a person under a Form 4 is deemed to be at risk of harming themselves or someone else, they are to be moved to a locked, secure room under the constant supervision of staff, the lawsuit says.

However, the Crisis Response Centre is not a locked facility, meaning that unless a person is in a locked room, they may be able to leave. 

The suit says although he was under the "belief he was a prophet, having delusional and auditory hallucinations and … suffering from intense suicidal thought," Trevor was not placed in a locked room for monitoring, "contrary to established procedure."

About three hours after being seen by the physician assistant at the crisis centre and at some point after the Form 4 was completed, he left the centre.

Staff called 911 so police could look for him, the statement of claim said. 

As a Manitoba court heard earlier this month, Trevor then went to the home of his father, Stuart Farley, on Toronto Street in Winnipeg, where he killed him.