Diminished Responsibility (VM)

Question 1

R v Byrne

Answer 1

• D was a sexual psychopath who strangled a young woman and then mutilated her body.
• Abnormality of Mental Functioning
• Substantially Impaired - a question of degree for the jury to decide.

Question 2

R v Golds

Answer 2

• D killed his partner and admitted the killing.
• Had an abnormality of mental functioning, arising from a mental condition.
• Substantial means something in between ‘total’, ‘trivial’, and ‘minimal’.

Question 3

R v Dietschmann

Answer 3

• D killed a friend who had broken his watch, which was a gift from a dead relative.
• D was medicated for suicidal thoughts relating to relative’s death.
• Where the defendant has a pre-existing mental disorder, intoxication does not prevent him using the defence; the abnormality of mental functioning does not have to be the sole cause of the defendant doing the killing.

Question 4

R v Wood

Answer 4

• D, an alcoholic, stabbed V 37 times with a meat clover.

- Alcohol Dependency Syndrome is a recognised medical condition.

Question 5

R v Dowds

Answer 5

• D had been drinking heavily when he had an argument with his partner and killing her.
• Voluntary acute intoxication is not capable of being relied upon to found diminished responsibility.