BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) – Sheila LaBarre sobbed loudly and was taken out of the courtroom, bringing proceedings to a halt Tuesday as a psychiatrist described her childhood, including living with an alcoholic, abusive father and a mother who didn’t protect her.

“Her real world (as a child) was populated with people who could use her however they wanted and wouldn’t protect her,” said Dr. Roger Gray, a psychiatrist from Newton, Mass. “(It) was populated with a real threat of death.”

LaBarre has admitted killing Kenneth Countie in 2006 and Michael Deloge in 2005. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

LaBarre became emotional during her insanity trial as Gray described the details of her childhood. Judge Tina Nadeau halted the proceedings and LaBarre was taken out of the room crying.

When court resumed, Gray explained these painful memories influenced the delusions she had when she was an adult. These included her belief that the men in her life were pedophiles and drug abusers.

“There’s no place in her world where she feels safe,” Gray said. This feeling of mistrust was evident in the way she would often accuse the men in her life of doing things they’d never done, like hurting her animals, cheating on her or even abusing children, he said.

Gray, who interviewed LaBarre four times and reviewed the police file on the case, was expected to be the defense’s last witness. He believes LaBarre is suffering from schizoaffective disorder, a type of psychotic mental illness that is accompanied by delusions and paranoia.

On Wednesday, the prosecution is expected to call into question the psychiatrist’s theory that LaBarre is suffering from a mental illness that caused her to commit her crimes.

Gray is the second psychological expert to testify for the defense. The trial opened four weeks ago with Dr. Malcolm Rogers, who also testified LaBarre is suffering from a schizoaffective disorder and that she was insane when she committed her crimes.

Like Rogers, Gray said he found signs that LaBarre’s mental condition deteriorated over the years, especially after Dr. Wilfred LaBarre, the man she lived with for many years, died.

Over time, her ability to take care of day-to-day tasks, like maintaining her rental property, became more difficult. Despite her worsening condition, LaBarre’s intelligence allowed her to cover up her illness and come across as normal in her dealings with some people, Gray said.

“She can present herself as being put together and yet when you scratch the surface, what you find underneath is all this chaos,” he said.

It’s this deterioration that gave Gray the opinion she is not faking her symptoms – or malingering as it’s known in the medical field – to escape going to prison.

“It’s one of the primary questions in this case, whether she is exaggerating her symptoms of the insanity defense,” Gray said. “When you see malingering, there’s a history someone may be doing pretty well then all of a sudden the symptoms pop up. In this case we see such a convincing history of psychosis (and) the progression from trauma to personality disorder to psychosis.”

Throughout the trial, the prosecution has pointed to what appears to be LaBarre’s attempts to cover up the murders, such as burning evidence and human remains and blatantly lying to police. Gray said he doesn’t think LaBarre was covering up her crimes, but revealing them in an attempt to get help.

“She was literally sending up smoke signals,” Gray said. He pointed to an altercation LaBarre had with police where she was clearly upset at the thought of being arrested, yet moments later was begging police to shoot her. “She’s been admitting all along she’s out of control and pleading for someone to take control.”

AP-ES-06-03-08 1742EDT