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Previous decisions and a lawsuit Guitare launched against correctional officers provide a window into his background, including a long history of time behind bars and a struggle with mental illness.

A ruling on a lawsuit Guitare brought against correctional officers, from the early 2000s, outlines “dozens of criminal convictions, including break and enter, armed robbery, and assault” as well as a sexual assault charge for which he was later acquitted.

A criminologist at Western University said public warnings about those at risk to offend are issued sparingly, and only when there’s “a consensus among police brass – the chief would ultimately have the final say in this – that it merits a public release.

“There’s a set of statutory guidelines that need to be met in order for an offender’s name and image to be released, as a matter of public warning. You don’t do that in every case,” said Michael Arntfield, a homicide expert.

Those warnings are issued most commonly about high-risk sex offenders, he said. When issued for ex-inmates without those sort of convictions, it suggests “in the view of police, the offender is likely to reoffend,” he added.

Those court documents suggest Guitare has been serving time for most of the last three decades, based on a long string of sentences stemming back to 1985, according to a 2014 ruling on a motion Guitare brought to argue he was being unlawfully detained.

The judge in that case shot down Guitare’s bid as “foolish venting.”

One decision details a four-year sentence Guitare served for aggravated assault, a charge to which he pleaded guilty in the late 1990s for slashing the hand of a nurse at a prison in Renous, N.B., slicing three of her tendons.

He later tried to appeal the sentence, saying he wasn’t psychologically responsible and wasn’t “competent to enter a guilty plea.” The sentencing judge in the slashing case “considered medical evidence that showed (Guitare) was suffering from mental problems.”

According to court documents, Guitare has spent time at Millhaven Institution in Ontario – where he was once attacked by a fellow inmate – as well as the Atlantic Institution in New Brunswick.