R v Lipman
A defendant who killed while hallucinating on LSD was guilty of manslaughter, because voluntary intoxication is no defence to a basic intent offence.
Facts
Mr Lipman and his girlfriend took LSD. While under the influence of the drug, he had hallucinations that he was descending to the centre of the earth and being attacked by snakes. He hit his girlfriend twice on the head and stuffed a sheet into her mouth, and she died of asphyxia. He said that he had no knowledge of what he was doing. He was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal upheld the manslaughter conviction. Widgery LJ said that where a defendant takes drugs voluntarily and then kills while in a state of intoxication, he is guilty of manslaughter, because voluntary intoxication is no defence to manslaughter, a crime of basic intent. It did not matter that he had no awareness of what he was doing at the time. The decision was approved by the House of Lords in DPP v Majewski.
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 Burgess [1991] 2 QB 92
- R v Coley; R v McGhee; R v Harris [2013] EWCA Crim 223
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