The defendant broke two windows and damaged a curtain in the house of a stranger. She was drunk. She was charged under the 1971 Act, but she raised her honest but drunken and mistaken belief that the house belonged to a friend who would have consented to her breaking in and causing damage having told the defendant she could use the house as if it were her own. She was convicted on the basis that as the crime was one of basic intent and as her intoxication was voluntary, Majewski directed that the court should ignore evidence of intoxication on the intent issue. She appealed and her conviction was quashed.
Held: ‘Belief’ in section 5(2) remained subjective despite the decision in Caldwell. Majewski had not said intoxication was irrelevant to the fact of the defendant’s state of mind, rather it held that regardless of the defendant’s state of mind, that for policy reasons he or she should be precluded from relying on a defence of self-induced intoxication. Such considerations did not apply where Parliament had, as here in section 5(2), specifically isolated a subjective element.
Mustill J
[1980] 3 All ER 716, [1981] QB 527
Criminal Damage Act 1971 1(1) 5(2)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – 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 – Commissioner of Police v Caldwell HL 19-Mar-1981
The defendant got drunk and set fire to the hotel where he worked. Guests were present. He was indicted upon two counts of arson. He pleaded guilty to the 1(1) count but contested the 1(2) charge, saying he was so drunk that the thought there might . .
Cited by:
Cited – Dowds v Regina CACzD 22-Feb-2012
The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder, saying that he should have been allowed to rely on a plea of diminished responsibility given the changes to section 2 of the 1957 Act introduced in 2009. He said that his alcoholism should . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Leading Case
Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.189976
