(Crown Court) The defendant had committed an armed robbery which involved stabbing her victim and leaning into the victim’s car to take her bag. The medical evidence supporting this mental state was that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after having been raped three days earlier.
Held: A dissociation stemming from physical trauma was viewed as arising from ‘external’ sources and as such sufficient for the purposes of the defence of automatism.
Citations:
[1990] Crim LR 256
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Crime
Updated: 20 May 2022; Ref: scu.553801
