More tests to see if brothers criminally responsible in Calgary teen sex attack

CALGARY — Two brothers who randomly kidnapped a teenage girl and repeatedly sexually assaulted her will undergo further psychological tests to determine if they are criminally responsible for their actions.

Corey and Cody Manyshots pleaded guilty in October 2015 to kidnapping, uttering threats, sexual assault and robbery.

Sentencing hearings had already begun last year, but more tests were ordered for the brothers last December. The results indicate both suffer the effects of severe fetal alcohol syndrome. 

“I believe that these two young fellows have fallen between the cracks of life,” Alain Hepner, lawyer for Cody Manyshots, told provincial court Judge Terry Semenuk on Friday.

“The degree of FASD is extreme.”

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Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak wasn’t opposed to further tests.

“We need to have the psychiatrist indicate whether the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder would have any impact on criminal responsibility, whether they are not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder,” Hak said outside the courtroom.

“That seems unlikely but, in fairness, it’s a psychiatrist who needs to tell us that, not the lawyers. When a court ultimately imposes a sentence … they have to have all of the information.”

Court has heard that the mother of the two men drank heavily during both pregnancies. Effects of fetal alcohol syndrome can include lifelong physical, mental and behavioural difficulties, as well as learning disabilities.

The pair approached the 17-year-old girl at a northeast Calgary bus stop three years ago, forced her into an alley and sexually assaulted her.

The brothers, both in their 20s, took the Grade 12 student to their home, where they sexually assaulted her another 15 times until she was able to escape about eight hours later after they fell asleep.

“There’s no excuse for what happened. The facts don’t change and the acts don’t change, but it’s what they comprehended that was going on — that’s the issue,” Hepner said outside court.

“I’m not sure that they did know that. I’m not sure that their cognitive abilities are to the point that they understood what they were doing.”

Hepner said if the two men are found to be not criminally responsible, the public doesn’t have to worry about them being set free.

“They’re going to an institution either way,” he said.

“It might be a psychiatric hospital. It might be a jail. That’s what’s going to happen. They’re not getting out of jail. Not any time soon.”

The two men are in custody at the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre. An update on their testing is expected June 30.

— Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press