Friday, October 30, 2015

Woman’s sex trial told 8-month mania impossible

Grade 6 teacher Carolyn Amy Hood faces two counts each of luring, sexual
interference and sexual exploitation of a young person.
PICTOU — Academically speaking, it would qualify as a rather direct assault on a peer’s professional opinion.

“Even a first-year student should be able to diagnose it,” said Dr. Risk Kronfli, referring to mania.

The testimony Thursday of the chief psychiatrist at the East Coast Forensic Hospital directly contradicted that of three psychiatrists called earlier by the defence in Carolyn Amy Hood’s trial on two counts each of luring, sexual interference and sexual exploitation of a young person at Nova Scotia provincial court in Pictou.

They testified that Hood, 40, could not have appreciated the moral wrong of her actions in 2013 because she was in the midst of a manic episode.

Over an eight-month period, Hood had explicit sexual conversations by text message with boys aged 14 and 15. The Grade 6 teacher at Thorburn Consolidated School sent pictures of herself to the boys, who were her former students, in her underwear and in provocative poses. She performed oral sex on one youth in his driveway.

Crown witness Kronfli stated in his testimony that while he agreed with the diagnosis of bipolar disorder with a manic episode, Hood was not in the midst of a mania while committing the offences. He said that of all the cases he has seen in peer-reviewed medical journals, there has never been a recorded manic episode that lasted more than a month.  (more...)

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