Thomas Hamp believed that a “secret police” was after him the night he killed his girlfriend

This story contains details that some readers may find disturbing

Thomas Hamp says he believed the secret police wanted to kidnap, torture and kill him when he stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche to death in February 2022.

Hamp, 27, is accused of the premeditated murder of Sanche and took the stand to give evidence at his trial at the Court of King's Bench on Wednesday.

On February 20, 2022, Hamp believed that this secret police, which he believed was conspiring against him, would also torture and rape Sanche.

“Killing us both was a more merciful way for us to die,” Hamp told his lawyer on Wednesday.

Hamp said he had previously been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, but in October 2021 he began experiencing delusions and obsessions that worsened before the stabbing.

He began to believe that he was surrounded by pedophiles and that people around him were conspiring against him to help the secret police, who believed him to be a sex offender. He began to distrust many people around him and associated the color green with sex offenders.

On the night of the stabbing, he testified in court that he was pacing the third-floor apartment where he and Sanche lived. He was paranoid and believed that the secret police were waiting in the parking lot outside the apartment and that recording devices were placed in the house.

“I was beside myself,” Hamp said.

He told the court he could not remember taking the knife because his memories of that night come and go in flashes, but he did remember having the knife in the couple's bedroom in case he needed to fend off an intruder or take his own life.

He says at some point Sanche came into the room, saw him with the knife in his hand and screamed. Then she ran toward the entrance. Hamp says he doesn't remember stabbing Sanche, but he does remember her falling and trying to kick him away.

“I remember seeing the broken handle of the knife,” he told his defense attorney.

Hamp then went into the bedroom, pulled out a Leatherman multi-tool and stabbed himself in the chest and again in the neck.

Prosecutor Cory Bliss presented letters Hamp wrote while in custody last year. Saskatoon police intercepted the letters, which were written to Emily's cousin Catherine Sanche. In the letter, Hamp spoke about his increasing paranoia in October 2021.

“I didn't believe it at the time, but now I believe that this paranoia and subsequent psychosis were caused by the weed I smoked,” Hamp wrote.

Hamp told the court he started smoking marijuana when it was legalized in 2018. By 2021, he was smoking an average of three times a day. He admitted he felt addicted to the substance at the time.

Two days before the attack, Sanche asked him to stop smoking because she believed that smoking was contributing to his psychosis. He complied.

Police officers who were first on the scene testified earlier this week that there was no smell of weed in the apartment the night Sanche was stabbed.

According to previous testimony, Sanche kept detailed notes of his repeated visits to doctors, clinics and hospitals to help Hamp.

On Wednesday, Hamp admitted he was not entirely honest about some of those trips, not telling doctors about all of his delusions and downplaying other symptoms because he believed he was fine and didn't want to “waste their time.”

He also believed that taking his medication was tantamount to brainwashing and chemical castration.

At one point during the trial on Wednesday, Hamp admitted to lying to Sanche and the crisis intervention hotline, claiming he felt much better after taking his prescribed amount of medication every day, when in fact he had not taken it in weeks.