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The father of Canada’s worst ever mass murderer feels great “pain” and has been “crying” over the massacre perpetrated by his son.

Paul Wortman says the stress of the horrific mass killing of 22 innocent people in Nova Scotia last weekend by his 51-year-old son has landed him in hospital and on medication.

The heartache in his voice was evident as the 73-year-old spoke by phone from his Moncton home explaining he has not been following developments of the shooting rampage, which included the slaying of RCMP Const. Heidi Stevenson.

“I can tell you I have quite a while ago — my wife (Evelyn) and I — have ceased to listen to any kind of news releases or anything, it’s so horrible,” Paul Wortman told the Toronto Sun. “The last thing I heard was it was the worst mass killing in Canadian history, and that sure broke our hearts. I have the greatest pain.”

He’s been so tormented that he reached out for medical help.

“I am seeing a psychiatrist now because I have been in the hospital with my heart," Paul Wortman said. "While I was in there, I broke down.

“I was contemplating suicide, if you want to now the truth. I am on medication now and I have (just) finished crying.”

Paul Wortman’s name became public after he was quoted in a post by popular satirical publication Frank Magazine’s Atlantic edition where he described an incident a decade ago involving his brother Glynn phoning him to say his son was coming to Moncton to “shoot” and “kill” him and his wife.

He talked about reporting the incident to the RCMP detachment in Bible Hill and how an officer interviewed his son, who denied his father’s claims.

The killer’s father, who also described being “beaten” by his son during a vacation in Cuba, told Frank his son had a “helluva a gun collection” and if the RCMP had obtained a “search warrant,” he wonders if this could have been averted.

“(He) wouldn’t have been able to do all of this if he didn’t have firearms,” Paul Wortman told Frank.

He did not talk about his son’s known infatuation with the RCMP, which included owning a collection of Mountie police cars and uniforms, but he did reference his brother Alan Wortman, the killer's uncle, was a retired RCMP officer.

In my conversation with Paul Wortman, he confirmed speaking to Frank Magazine but did not want to discuss further what they talked about. He said it was he who reached out to Frank and not them who contacted him.

“I called him for a reason," Paul Wortman said. "He seemed to get it. My conversation with the fellow from Frank magazine had a special purpose.”

He didn’t think the conversation would end up being published.

Now that it has been, hopefully the RCMP will go back into their files to verify if there was indeed a complaint filed by Paul Wortman about his son and determine any action that may have come out of it.

Between this claimed death threat, the described weapons, the earlier conditional discharge for an assault on a 15-year-old boy and the alleged assault on his father, there were potential red flags that may have slipped between the justice system’s cracks.

In talking to Paul, and for a short time to his wife Evelyn, it was clear what a traumatic time this is for them. In addition to all of the carnage caused by their son, they still lost their child.

They have been receiving condolences as well.

“Well, I have cards here from my neighbours, and calls coming in continuously offering sympathy and so on, but it’s not cutting it,” Paul said.

On this disturbing death toll, the father of the man responsible had one last thing to say.

“This is breaking my heart.”

jwarmington@postmedia.com

Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020