[SIZE=+0]A man accused of raping and trying to kill a Dartmouth gas station clerk last year has withdrawn his guilty pleas.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Michael Robicheau, 33, was escorted into Dartmouth provincial court by sheriff's deputies Friday morning.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Defence lawyer Pat Atherton asked Judge Alanna Murphy to allow the guilty pleas to be withdrawn because two psychiatrists have found Mr. Robicheau mentally unfit to be sentenced.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Prosecutor Perry Borden said the Crown was consenting to the application, which the defence gave notice of in July.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]“The next issue is whether or not he can be made fit,” Mr. Atherton said of his client.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Judge Murphy scheduled a fitness and treatment hearing for Dec. 5.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Mr. Robicheau has been in custody at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick but the judge ordered him remanded to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]That will allow him to be examined by doctors at the adjacent East Coast Forensic Hospital for an updated fitness report.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Mr. Robicheau, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty in January to attempted murder, sexual assault, robbery, unlawful confinement and possessing a weapon in the Aug. 21, 2007, attack at the Portland Street Ultramar.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]The victim, who was working alone on the graveyard shift, was left for dead with a slit throat but survived the attack.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Police found Mr. Robicheau hiding in nearby bushes. He had been released from prison on statutory parole 10 days earlier and was reported missing from a halfway house about four hours before the attack.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]After the guilty pleas were entered, the Crown requested that Mr. Robicheau undergo a 60-day forensic psychiatric assessment, the first step toward having him declared a dangerous offender and locked up indefinitely.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]During that assessment, a psychiatrist at the forensic hospital said Mr. Robicheau’s mental health had deteriorated to the point that he was unfit to participate in the sentencing process. The doctor said was acting psychotic and displaying signs of schizophrenia but could become fit again after a period of treatment at the facility.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]Mr. Robicheau, who says he’s healthy and refuses to be treated, had his lawyer hire a psychiatrist from Ontario to offer a second opinion on his mental fitness. That report, received by the court this summer, also said he was unfit for sentencing.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]“Mr. Robicheau has had three assessments to date,” Mr. Borden said outside court. “The first one said he was fit and the (others) said he doesn't have the ability to instruct counsel. So the guilty pleas were problematic given his current mental state.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]None of the doctors has suggested that Mr. Robicheau was unfit at the time of the offence and should be found not criminally responsible.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]“But that's not to say that he wasn't responsible at the time either,” the prosecutor said. “That's to be determined from the current report being generated.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]If the December hearing declares Mr. Robicheau unfit, the Crown will ask the judge to order him to undergo treatment at the forensic hospital.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]“We would have 60 days to make him fit,” Mr. Borden said.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]The victim and her husband have been kept “fully abreast” of all developments in the case, he said..[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+0]“I can't really speak for them but, as you can appreciate, it's stressful.”
