capacity defences cases Flashcards
AG for Northern Ireland v Gallagher
D decided to kill his wife. Bought whisky and knife. He got drunk, then killed his wife. Even though at the time he was unable to form the MR for murder (a specific offence), this had been formed prior to the alcohol.
Majewski
The Bull pub. Landlord tried to kick a man out of the pub. D tried to prevent him and a brawl followed. When the police arrived he shouted “you pigs, I’ll kill you all you f**** pigs, you bastards”
Held: HoL voluntary intoxication can only be a defence to crimes of specific intent.
Richardson & Irwin(1998)
students each drank 5 pints and indulged in “horseplay” – something they did regularly. V was lifted over a balcony and dropped at least 10ft suffering injury.
CoA Held: the jury should consider whether each man would have foreseen the risk of injury had they been sober. Clarke LJ (in emphasising the subjective approach) said “the defendants were not hypothetical “reasonable men” but university students”
Kingston
The facts of this case were that a man with paedophilic and homosexual tendencies (which he normally controlled fully), he was blackmailed into being photographed and audio taped in compromising positions with a 15 yr old boy. He claimed his drink had been laced with drugs.
HoL stated that where the drugs dis-inhibit someone so that the defendant cannot resist their desire this is not sufficient for a defence.
R v Sheehan and Moore
Ds in a drunken state poured petrol onto a homeless man, lit it and killed him.
Held: Key Q was did they form intent “drunk intent is still intent
Rv Lipman
D and girlfriend took LSD. He killed her by forcing a sheet into her mouth (he thought he was fighting a snake) and was charged with murder and unlawful act manslaughter.
Held: Not guilty of murder but guilty of UAM as this is basic intent for which vol intox is not a defence.
Kemp - Caused by disease of the mind
D suffered from arteriosclerosis which affected blood flow to the brain and could lead to temporary unconsciousness.
Held- disease of mind can be temporary.
Bratty - Caused by disease of the mind
psychomotor epileptic seizure – held to be insanity
Sullivan
minor epileptic fit was held to be insanity as it had an internal cause. – clearly not what would be considered medically “insane”
Caused by disease of mind
Windle “not knowing what he was doing was wrong”
in this case D strangled his insane wife then pleaded his own insanity. However, when he had given himself up to the police he said “I suppose I’ll hang for this”. This showed he knew the nature and quality of his act and that what he had done was wrong.
This was confirmed in R v Johnson.
Quick (1973)
– took insulin (went hypoglycaemic) this is automatism as it was an external cause.
