Automatism

Question 1

Bratty v A-G for Northern Ireland

Answer 1

• D strangled his girlfriend and killed his girlfriend ‘during a blackout.’
• Definition
• Legal test of Automatism created by Lord Dunning.

Question 2

Hill v Baxter

Answer 2

• D hit a car at a junction and said he remembered nothing.
• Must be an External Factor
• The burden of proof for automatism is on the defence.

Question 3

R v T

Answer 3

• D took part in a robbery, using a pen knife, three days after being raped.
• She argued she was in a dream-like state and suffered PTSD.
• Must be an External Factor
• External stress can give rise to automatism if severe enough. The prosecution argued that opening the pen-knife was a ‘controlled and positive action’: the judge disagreed saying D was ‘acting as though in a dream’.

Question 4

R v Narborough

Answer 4

• D was charged with a S18 offence after he stabbed V.
• D argued on appeal that he was sexually abused as a young child and, as a consequence, he suffered from PTSD which cause flashbacks.
• D said he had suffered a flashback at the time he stabbed V.
• Must be an External Factor
• In contradiction with R v T, the Court of Appeal rejected D’s argument saying that the defence psychiatrist had not referred to any authority to support the notion that PTSD ‘affects a person’s mental processes that his mind is no longer in control of his actions.’

Question 5

A-G Ref No. 2 of 1992

Answer 5

• D drove in a trance-like state along the motorway’s hard shoulder and hit and killed two people.
• Must be a Loss of Total Control
• As there was some control, the Court of Appeal dismissed automatism.

Question 6

R v Coley

Answer 6

• D pleaded automatism against a charge of ABH and S18, having drunk himself into an involuntary state.
• Self-Induced Automatism
• The defence was rejected.
• Even if he was in an involuntary state, this was because of his voluntary fault.