24News.ca

HALIFAX -- A sentencing hearing will be held today for the mentally ill Nova Scotia man who killed gay rights activist Raymond Taavel.

Andre Noel Denny pleaded guilty to manslaughter in November, more than three years after the high-profile crime.

The judge says the hearing will include three victim impact statements and surveillance video from inside the bar where Denny met Taavel.

An agreed statement of facts says Denny failed to return to a Halifax-area forensic psychiatric facility after receiving a one-hour, unescorted pass April 16, 2012.

The statement says Denny was impaired by psychosis when he got into an argument with Taavel, punched him in the head and slammed his face into the pavement outside a bar.

The Crown prosecutor says he will seek a prison sentence of more than six years, while the defence says it will seek a penalty of time served since Denny has been in custody since April 2012.