The man accused of stabbing three people at a festival in Vancouver’s Chinatown in September 2023 has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated assault.

Blair Donnelly, who attended court in a navy sweatsuit and took notes with a pen and legal pad, had been on unescorted leave from the B.C. Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam the day of the attack.

The trial by judge alone began at the Supreme Court in Vancouver on Monday, which is when Donnelly entered his pleas.

Crown prosecutor Mark Myhre says Donnelly was on a day leave from a psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam, B.C., for a bike ride, but went to Home Depot where he purchased a chisel.

He says Donnelly biked to Braid Skytrain station where he took the train to Vancouver and attended the Light Up Chinatown festival.

The Crown says Donnelly has admitted he was the person who then stabbed the three victims.

"I anticipate the only issue of the court is whether or not Mr. Donnelly is criminally liable or if he is not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder," Myhre said.

Myhre says Donnelly stabbed people sitting in front of him watching a musical performance just before 6 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2023, noting two of the victims were struck in the back and the third was stabbed in the forearm.

He says two women were stabbed in the back and received stitches while a man who was stabbed in the arm and also suffered an abrasion to his left knee had his wounds bandaged.

All three victims also received tetanus shots, the court heard.

Myhre said Donnelly suffers from a mental illness, "but at this point, from the Crown's perspective, the live issues are whether he was suffering from the illness on that day."

"If so, was it of such a nature that deprived him of the ability to know that what he was doing was wrong?"

The trial is expected to continue for about three weeks and the court has not yet heard from the defence. 

A report released last year, authored by former Abbotsford Police chief Bob Rich, said Donnelly had previously been let out of a psychiatric care facility 99 times in the year prior to the stabbings without incident.

He also stabbed a friend while out on a day pass in 2009 and attacked a fellow patient with a butter knife shortly after returning from leave in 2017, according to B.C. Review Board documents.

– Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press