R v Asmelash
Voluntary intoxication must be ignored when assessing how a person of normal tolerance and self restraint would have reacted in the loss of control defence.
Facts
Mr Asmelash had been drinking heavily with a friend. They argued, and the friend attacked him. He stabbed the friend to death. At his trial for murder, he relied on the defence of loss of control, and the judge directed the jury that they should consider how a sober person of normal tolerance and self restraint would have reacted, disregarding his intoxication. He was convicted and appealed.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction. Section 54(1)(c) of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 asks whether a person of the defendant's sex and age, with a normal degree of tolerance and self restraint and in the circumstances of the defendant, might have reacted in the same or a similar way. Lord Judge CJ said that voluntary intoxication is not a circumstance to be taken into account for this purpose, except where the intoxication is relevant to the gravity of the qualifying trigger, such as where the defendant is taunted about being an alcoholic. A drunk person is not entitled to a lower standard of self restraint.
Related cases on murder and voluntary manslaughter
- Attorney General for Jersey v Holley [2005] UKPC 23, [2005] 2 AC 580
- R v Ahluwalia [1992] 4 All ER 889
- R v Byrne [1960] 2 QB 396
- R v Challen [2019] EWCA Crim 916
- R v Clinton [2012] EWCA Crim 2, [2013] QB 1
- R v Dawes; R v Hatter; R v Bowyer [2013] EWCA Crim 322, [2014] 1 WLR 947
- R v Dietschmann [2003] UKHL 10, [2003] 1 AC 1209
- R v Dowds [2012] EWCA Crim 281, [2012] 1 WLR 2576
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