The defendant raised a defence of dimished responsibility under the 1957 Act to a charge of murder. Three doctors called for the defence at the trial had stated that the defendant was suffering from an abnormality of mind due to arrested or retarded development and that this abnormality of mind substantially impaired the appellant’s mental responsibility for killing a 15 year old boy. The jury convicted of murder. The defendant argued now that there had been no evidence to contradict that of the doctors.
Held: The appeal succeeded. A verdict of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility was substituted. Lord Goddard CJ said: ‘While it has often been emphasised and we would repeat that the decision in these cases as in those in which insanity is pleaded, is for the jury and not for doctors, the verdict must be founded on evidence. If there are facts which would entitle a jury to reject or differ from the opinions of the medical men, this court would not, and indeed could not, disturb their verdict, but if the doctors’ evidence is unchallenged and there is no other on this issue, a verdict contrary to their opinion would not be ‘a true verdict according to the evidence’.
Lord Goddard CJ
[1958] 1 WLR 474
Homicide Act 1957
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina v Khan CACD 27-Jul-2009
On his trial for murder the defendant produced unchallenged expert evidence that at the time of the offence, his mental responsibility for the killing was substantially impaired by his mental illness. He said that in these circumstances the charge . .
Followed – Regina v Bailey CCA 1-Oct-1961
. .
Cited – Walton v The Queen PC 1978
The defendant shot someone in a car. His defence was diminished responsibility, but the jury found him guilty of murder. He was sentenced to death. The Barbadian statute used precisely the same wording as the English Act of 1957. There had been . .
Cited – Golds, Regina v SC 30-Nov-2016
The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder, saying that he should have been only convicted of manslaughter, applying the new test for diminished responsibility as provided under the 1957 Act as amended, and particularly whether the . .
These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 26 March 2021; Ref: scu.368589 br>