The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder, saying that the judge should have directed the jury as to the impact of alcohol dependency syndrome on his plea of diminished responsibility where there had been no discernible brain damage.
Held: The appeal succeeded, and an order for a retrial was made. The court had applied the directions from Tandy but without allowing sufficiently for the developments in Dietchmann and Wood. The jury should be directed as to whether the defendant suffered an abnormality of the mind. It should be reminded that alcohol dependency was not of itself a justification for finding such an abnormality. It was for the jury to decide the actual effect suffered by the defendant. If the abnormaility was established it would normally follow that this was from a disease. Only then should the jury ask whether the defendant’s mental responsibility was affected substantially.
Judges:
Lord Judge, Lord Chief Justice, Mr Justice Wyn Williams and Mr Justice Holroyde
Citations:
[2009] EWCA Crim 593, Times 20-Jul-2009, [2009] 2 Cr App R 30, [2009] Crim LR 807
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Regina v Byrne CCA 1960
The defendant was a sexual psychopath who had strangled and mutilated a young woman resident of the YWCA. The case on his behalf was that he was unable to resist his impulse to gross and sadistic sexual violence. The judge’s directions had amounted . .
Cited – Wood, Regina v (No 1) CACD 20-Jun-2008
The defendant appealed against his conviction for murder, saying that he suffered from alcohol dependency syndrome, and that this amounted to a diminished responsibility.
Held: The appeal succeeded and and a conviction for manslaughter was . .
Cited – Regina v Dietschmann HL 27-Feb-2003
Voluntary drunkenness No Diminished Responsibility
The defendant had been convicted of murder. At the time of the assault, he was both intoxicated to the point of losing his inhibitions and was also suffering an abnormality of mind sufficient substantially to reduce his mental responsibility.
Cited – Regina v Tandy CACD 1987
The issue of alcoholism in a murder case may be dealt with solely under diminished responsibility. A craving for alcohol would only give rise to an abnormality of mind for the purpose of section 2(1) of the Homicide Act if it was such that the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 23 July 2022; Ref: scu.324720