Toronto van attack: Judge refuses to name fame-craving ‘incel’ killer as she convicts him of 10 murders

A Canadian man who drove a van onto a crowded Toronto sidewalk is guilty of murdering 10 people, a judge ruled – but she refused to say his name.

Judge Anne Molloy of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice would only refer to the convicted murderer as “John Doe”, she said, because he wanted so badly for his real name to become famous.

“The accused committed a horrific crime, one of the most devastating tragedies this city has ever endured, for the purpose of achieving fame,” Judge Molloy wrote in the ruling.

“In this case, and at this juncture,” she went on, “all I can do is to refuse to actually name the accused in my Reasons for Judgment.”

The 28-year-old man, whose real name is Alek Minassian, admitted to deliberately driving a rented cargo van into the Toronto crowd in April 2018. Unable to deny what he had done, his lawyers instead argued that Minassian’s mental health problems, including a disorder on the autism spectrum, blocked him from knowing it was wrong.

Judge Molloy rejected that argument.

“He had a functioning, rational brain, one that perceived the reality of what he was doing,” she said. “He chose to commit the crimes anyway, because it was what he really wanted to do.”

Minassian had told police he was motivated by his rage at being an “incel” – an “involuntary celibate” – rejected by women who would not have sex with him. Prosecutors worked that into their arguments against him, saying he was motivated partly by the anger at women that characterises the online “incel” movement.

But Judge Molloy appeared to reject that explanation as well.

“I am sure that resentment towards women who were never interested in him was a factor in this attack, but not the driving force,” she said. “He piggybacked on the ‘incel’ movement to ratchet up his own notoriety.”

In addition to the 10 murders, Minassian was also convicted of attempting to murder 16 other people. In delivering her verdict, Judge Molloy read out the names of all 26 victims.

“Instead of naming the perpetrator of these crimes,” Molloy said, “I will name the people he killed and injured.”

She also listed the names of people at the scene of the crime who helped the injured and dying, referring to them as “the true heroes of that day”.

Minassian is likely to face life in prison, the sentence in Canada for first-degree murder.