Canadian doctor says he killed his kids to spare them emotional trauma

Canadian doctor says he killed his kids to spare them emotional trauma

2011-05-13 04:42:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

QUEBEC, CANADA (BNO NEWS) -- A Canadian doctor testified at his murder trial on Thursday that he killed his children to spare them emotional trauma, the Canadian Press reported.

Guy Turcotte said he took the lives of three-year-old Anne-Sophie and five-year-old Olivier because he didn't want them to find him dead since he was planning on committing suicide that night. He said he remembers only flashes of what happened that night in February 2009, when he consumed windshield washer fluid and stabbed his children.

"I have a knife in my hands, I stabbed him and Olivier told me 'No!'," Turcotte said. "He struggles and I realize I'm hurting him. I panicked and stabbed him some more."

The Quebec doctor testified that he'd read emails between his wife and her new lover the night of the killings. He then researched suicide techniques after the children had gone to bed.

"The goal was to die," Turcotte said. "I don't know how to explain it. What I saw (in the email) hurt me and I wasn't able to endure anymore."

Turcotte has admitted killing his children, but denies intent or premeditation. This was Turcotte's fourth day on the witness stand.

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