UPDATE - March 17, 2016: The interim publication ban on the stabbing victim's name was lifted on March 16, 2016. The victim is Mark Markandu.

Ellis Kirkland, the well-known Harvard-educated executive arrested for attempted murder after a doorman was stabbed Thursday, is on suicide watch at a secure hospital corrections facility, says lawyer and former Liberal MP John Nunziata.

He told the Star Saturday evening that he will be representing Kirkland in mental health court on Monday.

“We will be calling for a forensic psychiatric assessment,” Nunziata said, hours after visiting Kirkland at the Vanier Centre for Women, a medium- and maximum-security facility for remanded and sentenced women.

“It just doesn’t make any sense, what happened. She needs help,” said Nunziata, who has known Kirkland through their families since his time as a politician in the 1980s.

“This doesn’t just happen. It would appear that she has been suffering from mental illness for some time. It does not appear that she’s criminally responsible for her actions. We will be waiting for a court-ordered psychiatric assessment.”

Kirkland is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and weapons dangerous to the public peace.

These allegations have not been proven in court.

Nunziata said that there would be no bail hearing or any other court order until the assessment is done.

He said he visited Kirkland at the Vanier Centre Saturday after he texted her Thursday when the dramatic events unfolded. Traditional and social media began reporting on the incident shortly after a knife attack in Kirkland’s condo building Thursday morning.

Media reported that police eventually traced her to the Town Inn Suites at 620 Church St., about a kilometre from the building where the stabbing occurred. According to reports, police tried to talk to Kirkland before two emergency task force officers rappelled from the floor above the 27th floor where she was.

It was reported that the officers stopped her before she tried to jump from the balcony when she saw them.

The stabbing victim, in his late 60s and a concierge for more than a quarter-century at a residence nestled along Rosedale Valley Rd., said he went to the second floor to assist Kirkland, 60, with some boxes. She’d asked for another doorman, he said, but he was the one still on shift, so he went.

Opening the door, Kirkland ushered him toward the empty boxes down the hall, he said. As he bent over to pick up the stack, he was stabbed in the right hip with a kitchen knife, he alleged.

He reared up, “dodging” swipes and receiving cuts on his back and the middle finger of his right hand as he backtracked into a corner of the suite, his arms outstretched in self-defence, he said.

Nunziata said there was a “lack of motive” for the stabbing. “It’s just so inexplicable. That would support a mental state that would suggest she is not criminally responsible.”

Nunziata said he only became aware of issues Kirkland has been dealing with when he visited her Saturday at the Vanier Centre, with another criminal lawyer, Mitchell Worsoff.

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The Star spoke to Worsoff on Saturday evening.

“I was asked to be co-counsel with Mr. Nunziata,” Worsoff said. “I’ve been asked to appear at mental health court with Mr. Nunziata on Monday to represent Miss Kirkland.”

“We were both saddened by what we were seeing — this woman that had so much going for her,” Nunziata said. “She’s been under a lot of pressure for a lot of different reasons.”

Nunziata said he could not disclose any more details about Kirkland’s condition.

“When I heard that she was at large, I had this vision of police using fire arms. I thought she might be suicidal at that point. It turns out she was. The police did what they ought to have done and they saved her life.”

“She’s under suicide watch at Vanier. I had to take the staples out of some documents (when he visited her Saturday).” Nunziata said that he would be visiting her again Sunday before he would appear in mental health court Monday to represent her and make sure the psychiatric assessment is ordered.

“She feels very alone at this point.”

Kirkland is an infrastructure consultant well-known around the world. Nunziata pointed out her work to get the suicide barrier built on the Prince Edward Viaduct, which is commonly called the Bloor Viaduct.

“What’s so tragically ironic is that she played a major role in making sure the Bloor Viaduct (barrier) was put up to prevent people from ending their life. It would appear that she wanted to end her life. Thankfully the police intervened.”

— With files from Alex Ballingall and Dan Taekema