'Canadian Psycho' lawyers to ask for closed hearing
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In this courtroom sketch, accused killer Luka Rocco Magnotta appears in court Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013 in Montreal. Magnotta is charged with first-degree murder in the slaying and dismemberment of Chinese engineering student Jun Lin. -- FILE PHOTO: AP
OTTAWA (AFP) - Lawyers for a man accused of a gruesome killing and dubbed the "Canadian Psycho" will ask a judge to ban the public from his preliminary hearing scheduled to start next week, the defence told AFP on Monday.
A court document in the case of Luka Rocco Magnotta, obtained from the defence, does not explain the reasons for wanting to keep the public out of the proceedings, except to say "the ends of justice will be best served by doing so."
The rest of the paragraph is partially blacked out but appears to point to Magnotta taking medication for a history of mental illness.
Magnotta, an occasional porn actor and escort, is accused of slaying and dismembering a Chinese student in Montreal last year.
