Voices directed a man with no hint of violence in his past to sexually torture an elderly woman and eat her flesh as a sacrifice to people he has wronged in his life, a North Bay court heard Tuesday.

A forensic expert said the 77-year-old woman is still at risk as Guy Ernest Leblond believes he has not yet paid back those people in full with the gruesome attack that was meant to kill her.

Leblond, 47, had withdrawn socially and become irritable and depressed, cutting back on activities that he enjoyed, like playing music on his bass guitar.

The woman resided at the same Trout Lake Road apartment building as Leblond and had a good relationship with him over the years.

It’s unusual for someone to suddenly act out the way he did on the evening of March 17 without any previous psychotic episode, although a prolonged bout of untreated depression in someone Leblond’s age can worsen and develop into psychotic behaviour, said Dr. Jeffrey Van Impe, a forensic psychiatrist at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene where Leblond has been held since his arrest.

Leblond was found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder because he didn’t appreciate what he was doing or that it was wrong, said Ontario Court Justice Greg Rodgers, calling this the most disturbing case he has been involved with in his 29 years on the bench.

Leblond will remain in custody at the Waypoint centre until an Ontario Review Board hearing is held sometime in the next 45 days to determine what to do with him. He could be held at a psychiatric facility for life.

He’s ordered to provide a DNA sample, and he’ll be added to the Canadian sex offender registry for life.

Leblond faced 10 criminal charges for attempted murder, aggravated sexual assault, sex assaults, assaults with a knife and unlawful confinement involving the woman and an 87-year-old man who was caught up in the violence.

Leblond pushed the woman to her bed and bound her hands to the headboard.

“I will pay you back in pain,” he told her.

“It’s a new world.”

He put a towel in her mouth to stifle her screams as the mutilation and torture continued for hours, at times eating pieces of her flesh before leaving her to attack an 87-year-old man he knew in another apartment, said Crown attorney Paul Larsh.

Leblond bound the victim’s hands with electrical cord and cut him with a knife. He was able to free himself when Leblond left the apartment for a time, and stabbed him in the chest in self defence when he returned before tossing a phone at him to let him to call for an ambulance.

That’s when police and paramedics came upon the scene.

Leblond was diagnosed with an unspecified psychotic disorder that would need more time to understand the mental illness that took over him that night.

“He was psychotic at the time,” the psychiatrist told court during testimony by video link from the Waypoint centre.

Six “johns” were identified as people Leblond believed he had wronged or had conflicts with, including one at the time of the attack.

They infiltrated his brain and controlled his behaviour, the psychiatrist said.

Leblond’s elderly victims are recovering from their injuries, but no longer live independently.

maria.calabrese@sunmedia.ca

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