A Vancouver woman convicted of abusing and killing family pets has been granted unescorted outings into the community.

Kayla Bourque, 26, will be allowed two-hour excursions away from her New Westminster, B.C., halfway house once a week, a provincial court judge ruled Thursday.

Bourque, a former Simon Fraser University criminology student, has been described by psychiatrists as a “psychopath” with antisocial personality disorder who is at high risk to commit more violent crimes.

She pleaded guilty in 2012 to killing animals after admitting to killing her family dog and cat; causing pain and suffering to an animal; and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Bourque has completed her jail time and is currently serving two years’ probation. She has been living under 47 parole conditions, but asked a judge this week to loosen some of them, requesting unescorted outings and more access to the Internet.

Her request for unsupervised Internet access was rejected, but her request for outings was approved.

She will be allowed to leave home from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Thursdays provided her parole officer consents. She will also be required to wear a GPS monitoring device and give her probation officers route details.

Crown lawyers told the court they support the excursions as a means of letting Bourque demonstrate responsible behaviour.

But the Vancouver Humane Society said it would have preferred to see the judge err on the side of caution.

“Her crimes are pretty horrific,” communications director Peter Fricker told CTV News. “She’s obviously still a danger to animals and to the community at large.”

After Bourque’s arrest, police searched her university residence and found what they described as a “kill kit,” containing a knife, syringe, restraints, black gloves and a demon mask.

Search warrant documents obtained by CTV News at the time suggested Bourque had told the friend she wanted “to get a gun and kill homeless people,” as well as “kill her mother and younger brother.”

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Mi-Jung Lee and files from The Canadian Press