TORONTO -- As a prosecutor prepared yesterday to have accused killer Horace Everton Weekes referred for psychiatric assessment, the murder victim and her daughter -- his ex-girlfriend -- were remembered as quiet, pleasant people.

Augustus Bishop said his neighbour Heather Stewart, who recently ended a five-year on-and-off relationship with Weekes, 59, was a hard-working uniformed security guard and devoted mom.

Bishop, 49, said Stewart, her murdered mother Helen Slichta, 71, who was visiting her and granddaughter Amanda Huntley, 25, on Saturday, were "very nice people."

Slichta, who lived elsewhere in Mississauga with her husband, was bludgeoned early that morning in her daughter's Glen Erin Dr. townhouse south of Derry Rd.

Peel Regional Police believe Slichta may have tried to prevent an attack on Stewart, who remains in Sunnybrook hospital with severe head injuries.

Flowers were placed outside her townhouse by Bishop and other neighbours.

"I was hoping to go to the hospital to visit," he said, calling himself Stewart's casual friend, and one of the few people she spoke with regularly in the well-kept, usually peaceful complex.

"We talked about a lot of things ... the last time the Monday before," Bishop said. "She was planning on moving some stuff out."

Huntley was released from hospital after treatment for broken bones.

She did not return home, and because of the severity of the attack, Bishop said the two survivors will "probably not" want to go back inside where Slichta died.

Bishop, a 19-year resident, said they moved in five years ago and he sometimes saw Weekes "washing his car in her driveway."

Last summer, he said police were called after he and Stewart argued loudly. "I know the guy," Bishop said. "But he kept to himself and I haven't seen him recently."

Stewart got a restraining order against Weekes after he was placed on probation in March and April for stalking and harassing her, court records show.

'HARM AT OWN HAND'

Her two siblings came to Mississauga after learning of the attack. They could not be reached for comment.

In a courtroom around 3:30 p.m., Crown attorney Michael Morris was successful having Weekes booked for a psychiatric hearing tomorrow.

Morris told Justice of the Peace Albert Changalloy he and investigators have "significant concerns" for the accused's mental state, and potential to suffer "harm at his own hand."

Arrested Saturday after a police search within a kilometre of the townhouse, Weekes woke in a hospital Sunday, confused and aggressive from drugs and alcohol, police said.

A doctor delayed his transfer to court until yesterday, when he was charged with first-degree murder and two counts each of attempted murder plus aggravated assault. Changalloy recommended guards monitor Weekes closely for "suicidal tendencies".

Wearing a blue denim jacket over a red T-shirt, he kept staring with furrowed eyebrows.

IAN.ROBERTSON@SUNMEDIA.CA