MANDEL: Delusional stalker still feared by his victim

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For greater than a decade, delusional stalker Bartosz Gajewski has been assessed yearly by the Ontario Assessment Board.

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And yearly, he’s nonetheless discovered to pose a big risk. However now 51, he’s progressed to the purpose that he was conditionally discharged in 2019 to dwell together with his mother and sister, and he receives anti-psychotic remedy to maintain his delusions at bay.

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Nonetheless, everybody agrees he nonetheless suffers from the identical delusional dysfunction he had again in 2009 when he pulled celeb inside designer Katherine Newman from a automotive in her driveway and dragged the slight girl down the road, declaring, “Within the identify of Jehovah, I’ve come to take you, no one can prevent. You’re corrupt. You’re going to be punished.”

It took a number of neighbours to lastly wrestle her away from his burly grasp.

He had as soon as labored as a cupboard maker on considered one of Newman’s initiatives and his preliminary infatuation had twisted right into a paranoid perception that she and her father have been conspiring in opposition to him. Arrested in 2003 for felony harassment and threatening bodily hurt, the costs have been dropped the next yr after Gajewski entered a peace bond to remain away.

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As an alternative, he was simply plotting his subsequent transfer. 5 years later, Gajewski was beneath arrest for tried kidnapping and assault — with nylon handcuff ties, rolls of duct tape, a utility knife and bolt cutters discovered at his house to execute what he mentioned was a “citizen’s arrest.”

Gajewski was discovered not criminally accountable in 2011 after being identified with delusional dysfunction of a persecutory nature.

At his annual listening to Wednesday, CAMH instructed that whereas Gajewski should now report each two weeks, that monitoring might be dropped to as soon as each 4 weeks within the coming yr. “He’s completed properly,” Dr. Mark Peace instructed the ORB. “There aren’t any issues about his psychological standing or behaviour.”

His anti-psychotic remedy has been barely diminished to alleviate his lethargy, he mentioned, however Gajewski continues to be complaining of fatigue.

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Regardless of his apparent progress, the psychiatrist agreed together with his conclusion final yr that Gajewski would cease taking his meds if he wasn’t beneath a board disposition. Pearce additionally admitted his affected person’s delusional signs would seemingly persist regardless of therapy and if he reoffended, there “might be severe repercussions to the sufferer.”

So no surprise Newman stays terrified. Final yr, the Court docket of Attraction refused to require the ORB to impose the particular geographical boundary she has repeatedly requested. She needed a “protected zone.” The ORB mentioned, and the court docket agreed, it wasn’t needed. In order it stands, the one restriction is that Gajewski should stay 500 metres away from her and her father and never contact them.

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“I’ve been writing Sufferer Influence Statements since 2011 – 11 years. Because the years go by
the results I expertise of being a sufferer of the accused turn out to be extra weighty,” Newman wrote.

“If the accused now not harboured the delusions he has held onto for what’s now two
many years, I’d have the ability to put this assault behind me. I want nothing extra for the
accused than to be cured,” she continued.

“Nonetheless, I do know that this has not occurred and is probably going not potential. His delusions stay intact. The proof offered yr after yr to the board and the findings of every psychiatrist are constant; the accused harbours the equivalent delusions in opposition to myself and my father.”

Gajewski listened quietly on the zoom listening to as he was praised for having one other secure yr, whereas Newman’s sufferer influence assertion wasn’t even talked about.

The hospital, his lawyer and the Crown all suggest this yr’s disposition ought to be a continued conditional discharge with the potential of monitoring diminished to as soon as each 4 weeks.

There’s little doubt the ORB will agree. And Gajewski’s sufferer will simply need to hope that he retains away.

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