Pickton's IQ Put To The Test

The MatrixA IQ test

Whatever his test scores and supposed low IQ results, I am sure most fifth graders would know it is wrong to have buckets with human hands and feet on your farm.

By Citizen Correspondent Trisha Baptie

Date Posted: 10/16/07

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The small New Westminster Court House has been the scene of Robert Pickton's murder trial for ten months now. Pickton stands charged with killing six women who went missing between 1997 and 2001- Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, Marnie Frey and Georgina Papin. The Crown has already made it's case, and so far, the defense is most concerned with trying to prove Pickton isn't smart enough to have committed the crimes.

Last week, we heard from Gordon Cochrane who gave a detailed account of Pickton's schooling in the 50s. Cochrane only had records of education until 1964, which showed Pickton repeated Grade 2 and was in special classes for his length of education after that. In Grade 3, he was performing at a Grade 1 level and in Grade 9, the transcripts showed he was at a grade 5 level , not doing as well as the other students, according to Cochrane.

We have also heard from Larry Krywaniuk, who met with Pickton in the Fraser Regional Corrections Centre, where he is being held to administer some IQ tests. I will tell you here - and I hope it is not a reflection on my IQ - but I was confused to no end listening to Krywaniuk explain the IQ tests he gave to Pickton.

They are very divided into different categories: Verbal, which deals with words, and performance, which measures visual and motor skills. Pickton scored higher on performance and low on verbal, which gave him an average of 86 per cent. Now, most of the population falls between 85 and 115 per cent, which would put him on the low end of the scale but still falling within the normal range. It was also relayed that during the testing, Pickton would be guessing at answers, talking as he tried to come to a conclusion for an answer.

In fact, Pickton scored 80 per cent on the verbal part of the test, which would put him in the lowest 10 per cent of the population. He scored higher on the performance part of the tests, which could explain why he was so good at doing tasks and had a passion for fixing cars.