Psychiatrist has 'no reason for optimism' Bobbitt can be rehabilitated | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Psychiatrist has 'no reason for optimism' Bobbitt can be rehabilitated

Bobbitt exiting the Penticton Courthouse.
Image Credit: Global News

PENTICTON - Not only is David Bobbitt a psychopath, he's a sexual sadist and deviant, a forensic psychiatrist said today during the offender’s dangerous offender hearing and sentencing in Penticton Supreme Court.

Yesterday, Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe said Bobbitt had strong psychopathic traits, based on the offender’s long history of violence, which began at the age of 12. Lohrasbe is testifying as an expert witness on the mental health of Bobbitt, whom Lohrasbe interviewed in prison after the 2011 confinement and sexual assault of a young woman.

Today, Lohrasbe said Bobbitt is sexually deviant to the extent of being a sexual sadist who is aroused by a victim’s suffering, Lohrasbe said. There are progressive stages to the sexual deviance that begins with anger, then moves to the need to dominate then the need to see the suffering.

Lohrasbe said he could not diagnose Bobbitt with sexual sadism because he didn’t have evidence of other committed violence, but said the traits are clearly present.

“It’s the same degree of suffering whether the person is diagnosed or not,” he said.

Crown prosecutor Debra Drissell read to the court new information she received this morning from the victim of the 2011 assault. The woman said that while Bobbitt was beating her in his second hand shop on Ellis Avenue, her 22-month-old was watching and crying. She comforted her son, as Bobbitt had requested, but he would bite her and burn her with cigarettes while she tried to stop the baby from crying.

Drissell also told Lohrasbe the story of the 2007 rape of Bobbitt’s ex-girlfriend, which he had not heard before. He said, based on that information, if it were fact, that he would diagnose Bobbitt as a sexual sadist.

The act of covering the woman’s face so she couldn’t breathe while he raped her demonstrates his arousal from watching someone suffer, Lohrasbe said. And sexually sadistic acts increase with age, and offenders need more violence to get aroused, which means future victims will be inflicted with greater pain and suffering, he said.

There are counselling and treatment programs offered through corrections facilities but Lohrasbe said Bobbitt would not benefit from these types of programs because he doesn’t feel the need to change.

Bobbitt has “not an inkling” of wanting to change or instil empathy, which he has no capacity for, and allows him to commit such violent crimes, Lohrasbe said.

“I just couldn’t find anything in this man for me to hang my hat on,” in terms of providing the judge with information that the offender could move forward and reintegrate into a community after receiving treatment, Lohrasbe said.

“I have no reason for optimism.”

To contact the reporter for this story, email Meaghan Archer at marcher@infotelnews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, Marshall Jones, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

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