JUDGE CEDES TO DEMANDS OF KILLER'S DOCTOR

TORONTO — The single most important defense witness, Dr. Alexander Westphal, supporting Alek Minassian’s claim that autism prevented him from knowing it was wrong to kill 10 people, refused to testify unless the judge guaranteed his videos of the accused are never publicly released.

Describing the witness’s refusal as “offensive” and a “ransom demand,” Justice Anne Molloy reluctantly agreed to the unprecedented demand, because without the doctor’s evidence, Minassian had no plausible defense to what is the most serious set of charges ever heard in an Ontario court.

Minassian’s lawyer, Boris Bytensky, described the videos as high-definition, close-up recordings of Minassian’s face being interviewed by Westphal and a colleague, describing his attack “in excruciating detail.”

Crown prosecutor Joseph Callaghan referred to the restrictions as an attempt to “hijack this process.”