Quebec City sword attacker has narcissistic personality disorder, says Crown expert

Carl Girouard, the man charged in the Quebec City Halloween sword attacks of 2020, has narcissistic personality disorder, the Crown's first expert witness testified Tuesday.

As Girouard listened, rocking back and forth in his seat, neuropsychologist Dr. William Pothier refuted the idea advanced by the defence team's expert witness that the accused was psychotic when he killed two people and attacked five more on Oct. 31, 2020.

The defence argues Girouard cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions because he had a mental disorder at the time that prevented him from distinguishing right from wrong.

Pothier met Girouard twice in March 2022. His job was to determine whether the 26-year-old defendant had a psychotic disorder or if other elements of his personality could explain his actions.

Pothier said narcissistic personality disorder usually begins to manifest in childhood, and that psychologists' reports from Girouard's youth show evidence of that.

The neuropsychologist said Girouard would act inappropriately and try to make people laugh to attract attention. When Girouard faced rejection and bullying from his peers, his self-esteem plunged and he started isolating himself to avoid further rejection.

As Girouard started playing video games and retreating into a world of fantasy where he could be a hero, he became disappointed with society and started thinking other people were sheep and didn't appreciate who he was, Pothier said.

"That triggers a feeling of superiority," Pothier told the jury. It's at that time Girouard's narcissistic personality disorder started developing, the expert said. 

The fact that Girouard kept perfecting his plan to kill people with a sword and was very concerned with the image he would project further points to this diagnosis, Pothier said.

Pothier explained that as a neuropsychologist, his job is to do a clinical assessment of a person, but that it's up to a psychiatrist to determine whether or not that person was conscious of what they were doing.

Pothier's testimony will continue Tuesday. The Crown plans to call one more expert witness to testify, psychiatrist Dr. Sylvain Faucher, later this week.

Another expert, the psychiatrist who testified that Carl Girouard was likely in a state of psychosis when he carried out the attack, found his own actions under the microscope at the trial today.

The Crown played an interview that Dr. Gilles Chamberland gave to a radio station less than 12 hours after the attack in which he said the suspect was likely in psychosis. 

In a tense cross-interrogation, Crown prosecutors asking Chamberland whether his opinion of Girouard's mental state had already been formed months before the two actually met.