The defendant appealed against his conviction for 13 murders and 7 attempted murders saying that his plea of diminished responsibility should not have been rejected.
Held: The appeal failed. Lord Lane CJ said: ‘The psychiatrists all substantially agreed that in a case such as this, the diagnosis was necessarily based very largely, if not entirely, upon what the accused man had told them. Again there was a general consensus of opinion between the medical men that if the accused man really believed that what he was telling the doctors was true, namely that he was on a divinely inspired mission to kill prostitutes, then the diagnoses would be correct. There was also a consensus that if on the other hand what this man told them upon the more important features of the case was to his knowledge false and was a deliberate lie, then their diagnosis in its turn would be falsified.’ and ‘The matter was thrashed out at great length before the jury and the jury came to the conclusion that . . this man was probably not telling the truth to the doctors and accordingly their diagnosis was falsified, through no fault of theirs.’
Judges:
Lord Lane CJ
Citations:
Unreported, 24 May 1982
Cited by:
Original Appeal – Coonan (Formerly Sutcliffe), Regina v CACD 14-Jan-2011
The claimant, formerly known as Peter Sutcliffe, had been convicted in 1981 for thirteen murders and 7 attempted murders. His plea of diminished responsibility was rejected. The judge had recommended a minimum term of 30 years for the life sentence, . .
Original Appeal – Regina v Coonan (Formerly Sutcliffe) QBD 16-Jul-2010
The respondent had been convicted of thirteen murders and eight attempted murders. He had claimed to have been acting in response to a divine voice heard when he worked in a graveyard. He was diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. The murders had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 12 April 2022; Ref: scu.430459