TORONTO – A forensic psychiatrist says the 17-year-old girl convicted of Stefanie Rengel’s murder could develop a personality disorder resembling Glenn Close’s character in the movie “Fatal Attraction.”
Dr. Philip Klassen told a sentencing hearing today that the girl, known as M.T., has issues with jealousy and anger and is more self-pitying than remorseful.
In his report filed with the Toronto court, Klassen writes that if her psychological presentation continues into adulthood she could evolve into a person with a “highly functioning” borderline personality organization.
That disorder, he says, is personified by Close’s character in the 1987 movie about a woman who stalks her married lover’s family.
Rengel was stabbed six times and left to die in a snowbank outside her home on New Year’s Day 2008.
The Crown successfully argued that M.T., driven by jealousy, used sexual blackmail against her boyfriend, known only as D.B., to push him into killing the 14-year old.
Klassen interviewed the teen, who was convicted of first-degree murder, for more than five hours and said that there has been “no spontaneous expression of remorse” for Rengel’s death.
In his report, Klassen writes it’s not a foregone conclusion that M.T. will develop into someone with highly functioning borderline personality organization.
Under questioning by the defence Tuesday, Klassen admitted he could not predict how M.T. would respond to treatment or whether she would gain better control over her emotional issues as she ages.
The Crown is seeking an adult sentence for the girl, which would bring an automatic life sentence with no eligibility for parole for five to seven years.
If sentenced as a youth, as the defence wants, she will face 10 years in custody, six served in prison and four served in the community under supervision.
