Stephen Allison, 20, who was a passenger on the Greyhound bus on Jul. 30, 2008 when Vincent Li killed and beheaded Tim McLean, speaks to media in Winnipeg on Thursday. Photograph by: Screen grab, Global TV

WINNIPEG — The man who killed, beheaded and cannibalized a passenger on a Greyhound bus last summer is headed to a hospital — not a prison cell — after being found not criminally responsible Thursday for his actions.

A judge announced the fate of Vincent Li, who had been charged with second-degree murder in the grisly death of 22-year-old Tim McLean.

Psychiatrists for both the Crown and defence told a trial this week that the 40-year-old Li could not be held criminally responsible because he had been having a psychotic episode and was hearing voices when he attacked his sleeping victim on the bus near Portage la Prairie, Man.

But the official verdict Thursday morning nonetheless angered family members of the victim.

"He should be held responsible for it," said McLean's mother, Carol deDelley, minutes after Scurfield handed down his decision.

"He still did it. Whether he was in his right frame of mind or not, he still did the act. There was nobody else on that bus, holding a knife, slicing up my child."

McLean's mother has created the deDelley Foundation for Life to pursue changes to criminal law. She wants anyone who voluntarily takes another person's life to lose his freedom for the rest of his life, regardless of whether he's declared not criminally responsible.

McLean's father said the idea that Li could receive medication, counselling and then be released back on to the street after committing such a heinous act is frightening.

"I have a fear knowing that he may get out one day," said Tim McLean, Sr., who also showed reporters the tattoo of his son's face he now bears on his chest.

"My fear is that Vincent Li may get out and be released into the public one day, and I fear for the public," he said.

"This should not have happened."

Queen's Bench Justice John Scurfield said the evidence was clear Li was suffering from a major mental illness when he attacked the sleeping McLean on July 30, 2008, repeatedly stabbing him and then dismembering and eating parts of his body.

"Mr. Li is a schizophrenic," said Crown Attorney Joyce Dalmyn after hearing the verdict.

"Mr. Li, in my opinion and in the opinion of the psychiatrists, had no idea that what he was doing was wrong. . . . People who are mentally ill should not be convicted when they don't know what they did was wrong. They need to be treated. I certainly agree that, in Mr. Li's case, he needs to be treated for a very long time."

Details of the crime — which made news around the globe — emerged this week at a trial marked by tight security and fears that vigilantes might try to harm Li.

Li was hearing voices in his head — which he believed came from God — that told him to eliminate "the force of evil" by attacking the sleeping McLean, psychiatrists said.

Li stabbed the carnival worker to death, then beheaded and cannibalized the body.

Terrified passengers fled the bus with RCMP officers arriving on the scene, only to watch for several hours as Li continued to stab and defile McLean's body.

He was seen by police eating some of McLean's remains. Police later discovered that McLean's eyes, part of his heart, and other pieces of his flesh were missing.

The end of the trial is cold comfort to Stephen Allison, 20, a Kenora, Ont., native who witnessed McLean's nightmarish death. He said he understands why the court would opt for treatment over prison, but he's haunted by the idea of Li being released.

"For someone to even be capable of doing that, there has to be something wrong with them," he said. "I don't know what I'd do if I ever saw him again, because he's just such a scarring image on my mind, that even seeing an image in the paper hurts."

On the night of the killing, Allison was sitting directly across the aisle from Li and McLean.

"Out of nowhere, he came out and attacked him. . . . I jumped up, yelled to stop the bus, and then they (the other passengers) got off," he said.

"I went back for my wife and he was still attacking him on the floor. My wife was still sitting down, because she was paralyzed with fear. I crawled over some seats and got back to her, grabbed her, and brought her off the bus.

"I saw the entire attack, heard the screams and saw everything."

He said the memory of the event is still fresh, still terrible.

"Everything's been affected by this. I used to be a very outgoing and talkative person and have lots of friends, but now I just kind of sit around and don't do much," he said.

"It's impossible to even imagine unless you've actually seen it. So many people say, 'Oh, I've seen that on TV,' or 'Oh yeah, that looks like it wasn't that bad,' but really, you don't know, because it's real, and it's not a TV. It's right in front of you — and some images you can just never get out of your head."

Allison is taking part in a lawsuit on behalf of the passengers against Greyhound. "This could have been prevented if they'd had more security measures in place," he said.

That Li committed the crime was never in doubt. All that the judge was asked to determine was Li's mental state at the time — a finding which would decide whether he would be sent to prison or a mental hospital.

Dr. Stanley Yaren told court this week how Li claims voices from God in his head caused him to single out McLean for death.

Yaren said Li is slowly beginning to realize what he's done, but still doesn't accept the fact he consumed some of McLean's body parts.

"It may be he's blocked it from his consciousness . . . that it's just too awful for him to contemplate," he said.

Yaren believes Li could make a significant recovery in the next few years under rigorous treatment and medication, but still continues to suffer from delusions, including a belief he will one day be executed.

"He is not 100 per cent out of his psychotic phase yet," he said. "But over time, as he recovers, he will have to come to terms with the awful things that have occurred."

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