On Monday, Yukon Supreme Court heard about inmate Michael Nehass’ traumatic upbringing, his deteriorating mental health and the prolonged effect incarceration has had on him.

The full week has been set aside to hear a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge Nehass filed last November.

In the application, Nehass argues procedural delays and detention conditions infringed on his constitutional rights protected by the Charter.

He is asking the court to stay the current proceedings and to release him from custody.

Dr. Peggy Koopman, a psychologist, testified about Nehass’ life after reviewing dozens of medical and psychological reports.

At age two, his parents separated.

A year later, Nehass lost his mother to a traffic crash. He went to live with his father and step-mother.

“Life was very difficult at that time (for him),” said Koopman.

His stepmother inflicted cruelty on him – locking him in his room for long periods of time.

Before the age of five, he was banging his head against walls, screaming. Around the same time, he was sexually assaulted, Koopman said.

There was a lot of alcohol and drug abuse in his family, she said.

He first starting drinking at age nine.

Around the same time, he started harming himself and losing control in an “hysterical way.”

At 12, he made his first suicide attempt.

“It was an attempt to demonstrate emotional pain,” said Koopman.

At 14, he had his first drug-induced psychosis. He used drugs to self-medicate and escape situations he was in, but he couldn’t handle them, Koopman said.

Nehass developed another personality, akin to imaginary friends young children have sometimes, she said.

“She is making me look like a wingnut!” Nehass shouted.

There was violence in the community where Nehass was living, Koopman noted.

Over the years, he was diagnosed with FASD, attention deficit disorder, an anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was also diagnosed with an attachment disorder, resulting from the fact that he wasn’t able to develop trusting and nurturing bonds with loved ones – and all further relationships would be hampered by that.

“Life is not safe and people can’t be trusted,” Koopman said as an example of what people with an attachment disorder might feel.

From age 15 on, he made several suicide attempts, including swallowing razor blades in 2008.

Nehass interrupted Koopman repeatedly throughout the hearing, shouting at times that she was lying.

He said his own lawyer, Sarah Rauch, is part of a conspiracy against him and that nobody was listening to him about information he had on missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Koopman also quoted from research published out of the Harvard Medical School detailing psychological consequences of prolonged solitary confinement.

The hearing back in January 2014, when Nehass appeared naked and shackled via videoconference, was “extremely” traumatic, she noted.

The appearance later prompted an apology from the presiding judge for not having adjourned earlier.

On Monday, Justice Scott Brooker adjourned three times in the hour-and-a-half-long hearing when Nehass wouldn’t stop yelling over him, the witness or the Crown.

He threatened to fire his own counsel several times.

Nehass was scheduled to take the stand today.

Testimonies for the defence are expected to continue until Thursday, before adjourning until the end of February.