The former Simon Fraser University criminology student convicted in 2012 of killing pets was scheduled to be back in Vancouver Provincial Court on Friday.
Crown counsel is seeking a preventive justice order against Kayla Alexina Nelis Bourque, 33. BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Daniel McLaughlin said Bourque is out on a release order with conditions and that a date for the recognizance application to be heard will be set Feb. 3.
“The application was initiated following the receipt of a report to Crown Counsel,” McLaughlin said. “The circumstances in support of the application will be related at the hearing. As the matter is now before the court, the BCPS will have no further comment.”
According to the Crown Counsel Manual, the purpose of a recognizance order "is to prevent serious harm by imposing conditions upon a person, which may restrict their movement or behaviour to reduce the risk of them committing a future offence.”
For a court to approve such an application, it said, there must be proof on a balance of probabilities of substantive fear that a defendant will cause injury to another person or damage to property.
Bourque was born in Romania and adopted from an orphanage at eight-months by Canadian parents from Prince George who later separated. In 2012, she pleaded guilty to killing and eviscerating her family’s dog and cat, which she filmed and photographed. Court heard that she had a desire to obtain a gun and shoot a homeless person.
A forensic psychiatrist’s assessment submitted to Judge Malcolm MacLean found Bourque had antisocial, psychopathic and narcissistic traits.
MacLean jailed Bourque for two months, in addition to the seven-months served before trial, plus three years probation. One of her 46 court-ordered conditions was a lifelong ban on owning or residing with animals.
When Bourque lost an appeal in 2013, Justice Elizabeth Bennett wrote that Bourque lost the privilege of animal companionship “by betraying their trust in her.”
“Ms. Bourque has a history of killing and torturing animals. She takes pleasure from this conduct, and has no insight into the harm and suffering she causes these creatures. Her condition is life-long, and is not situational,” Bennett wrote.
Bourque was sent to jail for four months in 2019 for breaching a ban on accessing social media. The previous year, authorities warned the public she was leaving New Westminster to reside in Surrey.
Last June, a judge allowed Bourque to travel by air between Vancouver and Prince George without wearing an electric monitoring device.
