R v Burgess
Violence committed while sleepwalking, caused by an internal factor, falls within the insanity defence.
Facts
Mr Burgess and a female friend fell asleep while watching videos at her flat. During the night, while she was asleep, he hit her on the head with a bottle and a video recorder, and grasped her throat. He said that he had been sleepwalking and did not know what he was doing. Medical evidence showed that his sleepwalking was caused by an internal disorder, which might recur. The judge ruled that his defence was one of insanity, and he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal upheld the verdict. Lord Lane CJ said that the sleepwalking was caused by an internal factor, a disorder of the brain, which had manifested itself in violence and might recur. It was therefore a disease of the mind within the M'Naghten Rules, even though sleep is a normal condition. The possibility of recurrence was a relevant factor, because the purpose of the special verdict is partly to protect the public from people who might commit violent acts while not responsible for them.
Related cases on defences: insanity, automatism and intoxication
- Attorney General for Northern Ireland v Gallagher [1963] AC 349
- Attorney General's Reference (No 2 of 1992) [1994] QB 91
- DPP v Majewski [1977] AC 443
- Hill v Baxter [1958] 1 QB 277
- M'Naghten's Case (1843) 10 Cl & F 200
- R v Bailey [1983] 1 WLR 760
- R v Coley; R v McGhee; R v Harris [2013] EWCA Crim 223
- R v Hardie [1985] 1 WLR 64
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