The author of the massacre in Old Quebec says he committed his crimes because of a “mission” inspired by video games that had obsessed him for years. During his testimony on Wednesday, he himself alluded to his “mental difficulties”.
Hair cut short, dressed in a clean white shirt, the alleged perpetrator of two murders and five attempted murders answered questions from his lawyer Pierre Gagnon at length on Wednesday morning.
Early in the interrogation, he said he “mixed the world of video games with the real world.” In a polite, calm and clear tone, he told how around the age of 15-16, he had discovered these games, particularly those “with swords and bladed weapons”.
He maintained that this universe had supplanted reality, in particular that of the school for which he lost interest.
He claims to have been inhabited by the idea of a “mission” which took up all the space in his head from the age of 18. “[J’y pensais] still. A daily. It was like a second world in my head that I associated with this mission. […] There was a Carl Girouard who did not think about the mission and a Carl Girouard who thought about the mission. I could never get that out of my head.”
The ‘mission’ was to kill people to get the attention of other anonymous gamers whom he called his ‘alter egos’. The context of Old Quebec, Halloween and the full moon helped stimulate his obsessions.
His lawyer Pierre Gagnon wants to convince the jury that he is not criminally responsible for his crimes due to mental disorders. In his testimony, the accused himself mentioned his “mental difficulties” without specifying a diagnosis.
“He wanted to be left alone”
In a previous testimony, his mother, Monique Dalphond said that her son had been followed in child psychiatry in primary school for behavioral problems. “It was especially from the third year that it became serious,” she said. The young Carl Girouard had a “disruptive behavior”. On the bus, he “was giving legs and wanted to fight with the other boys”. He “ate his pencil lead”.
Carl Girouard was essentially raised by his mother, his father having left the household when he was ten years old. He has three brothers, one of whom has autism and the other exhibited behavioral problems as adults, the mother said.
Towards the end of elementary school, Carl Girouard was prescribed a drug to treat hyperactivity – Concerta – which he stopped taking because he was not feeling well, according to his mother.
“His behavior in class had improved, but I felt he was anxious. […] He slept badly [ne] was not eating well, complained of stomach aches.”
As a teenager, he was an isolated boy. Once of age, he got a credit card and “began to have a strong interest in bladed weapons and samurai costumes,” said his mother. “He buys them, throws them away and buys more.”
Did that worry him? “Of course I’m worried, but that’s the only interest he has other than video games,” replied M.me Dalphond with avocado. “He had no friends, no girlfriend, no social life. I didn’t want to discourage him.”
In addition to the accused and his mother, the defense intends to call as witnesses an employee of the detention center and the psychiatrist Gilles Chamberland.
More details will follow.