The defendant appealed against his conviction for assault saying that he was so intoxicated on drink and drugs at the time that he did not have mens rea.
Held: The appeal failed. The court certified a question for the House of Lords namely: ‘Whether a defendant may properly be convicted of assault notwithstanding that, by reason of his self-induced intoxication, he did not intend to do the act alleged to constitute the assault’.
Lawton LJ said: ‘The facts are commonplace-indeed so commonplace that their very nature reveals how serious from a social and public standpoint the consequences would be if men could behave as the [appellant] did and then claim that they were not guilty of any offence.’
Judges:
Lawton LJ
Citations:
[1975] 3 WLR 401, (1976) 62 Cr App R 5
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Director of Public Prosecutions v Majewski HL 1976
The defendant took a cocktail of drink and drugs and, whilst intoxicated, assaulted pub landlord. He said that he did not know what he was doing, and had no mens rea, that self-induced intoxication could be a defence to a charge of assault, and that . .
Cited – Achogbuo, Regina v CACD 19-Mar-2014
The Court considered a renewed application for leave to appeal which the Registrar had considered to be without merit and was referred under section 20 of the 1968 Act.
Held: The reference had been properly made. The application for extension . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.270321