John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are seen in an artist's sketch at court in Vancovuer on Friday, May 29, 2015.Felicity Don/The Canadian Press
One of the RCMP officers involved in the terrorism investigation of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody says concerns Mr. Nuttall was developmentally delayed were "always on the radar."
A jury last month found Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody guilty of conspiring to murder persons unknown and making or possessing an explosive substance – in both cases for the benefit or at the direction of a terrorist group. They were arrested on July 1, 2013, after they placed pressure-cooker devices outside the B.C. Legislature.
The judge in the case said she would wait to enter the guilty verdicts until after an entrapment argument was heard. The entrapment hearing continued in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday with the testimony of Corporal Stephen Matheson, to whom the primary undercover officer in the investigation reported.
Mark Jetté, Ms. Korody's lawyer, asked Cpl. Matheson several times about the couple's vulnerabilities. Mr. Jetté and Mr. Nuttall's counsel have portrayed the husband and wife as poverty-stricken addicts who were manipulated by police.
"I think that right from Day 1 … we were talking about John Nuttall's level of sophistication, whether he had developmental issues of any kind. So that was always on the radar," Cpl. Matheson told the court.
The trial heard in March that the RCMP had considered whether Mr. Nuttall, the target of the investigation, was developmentally delayed. The primary undercover officer – who cannot be identified – was asked about a meeting in which the issue evidently arose. The officer testified he could not recall the meeting, but it may have occurred.
Mr. Nuttall's intellect and mental state were recurring themes at the trial. He was repeatedly heard on police recordings making bizarre statements and factual errors. On Tuesday, Mr. Jetté referred to one instance in which Mr. Nuttall said he nearly died after accidentally ingesting ant poison he had spilled on a countertop. The lawyer also mentioned negative health effects Mr. Nuttall claimed he suffered from a chemical trail left by an aircraft.
The Crown has said Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody are more than capable of thinking things through and chose to try to murder innocent people.
Cpl. Matheson told the court the Mounties pondered exit strategies for the investigation – how the primary undercover officer would break off contact if the couple ultimately did not commit an offence. Mr. Jetté and Cpl. Matheson agreed the officer had become an integral part of the couple's lives.
"I did believe that they were a public safety risk ongoing – it could be very dangerous simply to break off contact," Cpl. Matheson said.
Mr. Jetté asked Cpl. Matheson if one option was "for the police to unmask themselves, in some form or another, and simply show up and say, 'You're saying a lot of crazy stuff and we want to talk to you about that.'"
"That's right," Cpl. Matheson said. "That had been done before."
Staff-Sergeant Vaz Kassam, the officer who led the investigation, last week told the hearing Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody had plenty of opportunities to back out of the plot. Lawyers for the couple have said they feared they would be killed if they did so.
During the trial, court heard that the primary undercover officer gave Mr. Nuttall – who was on social assistance – hundreds of dollars, sometimes for running errands and sometimes for no reason.
Cpl. Matheson said he was of the opinion police should not have given Mr. Nuttall any money.
Mr. Nuttall and Ms. Korody bought the pressure-cookers with their own funds after Mr. Nuttall received his welfare cheque.