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Driscoll said any offender with an illness, whether physical or mental, has to be treated while in custody.

Garnier was convicted in December of second-degree murder and interfering with a dead body in the September 2015 death of 36-year-old Catherine Campbell.

There are actual veterans who returned from war, or multiple wars, and they are killing themselves because they can't get help for the PTSD they suffer from through no fault of their own

On Aug. 13, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge decided Garnier would be able to apply for parole after serving 13.5 years — less 699 days for time served.

Garnier’s lawyer has argued that his client’s mental illness was brought on by the murder.

In submissions filed with the court, defence lawyer Joel Pink said a psychiatrist hired by the defence, Dr. Stephen Hucker, said in a report that Garnier suffered from acute stress disorder immediately following Campbell’s death.

“The testimony of Dr. Hucker clearly indicates that there is a strong link between Mr. Garnier’s illness and his interference with human remains; therefore, it should be considered a mitigating factor in his sentencing (on that charge),” Pink said in his submissions to Justice Joshua Arnold.

Garnier repeatedly told the jury he did not remember using a large green compost bin to dispose of the woman’s body near a Halifax bridge, where it stayed undetected for nearly five days.

During Garnier’s trial, the jury was told Garnier met Campbell for the first time at a downtown Halifax bar on Sept. 11, 2015. Hours later she was dead in a north end apartment.

In his decision regarding parole, Arnold said Campbell was expecting romance and affection that night, but “for reasons unknown, Mr. Garnier punched her in the face, broke her nose, strangled her to death, and then, in an effort to hide his crime, treated her remains like garbage.”