diminished responsibility

Question 1

S.52 Coroners & Justice Act 2009

Answer 1

special (murder) and partial (reduces to manslaughter) defence to murder
- needs all 4 elements to be found guilty

Question 2

DR

Answer 2

show at the time that D was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning so he was not fully responsible for his actions - lacking culpability

Question 3

AMF

Answer 3

abnormality of mental functioning - needs to be present at the time of the killing

Question 4

Byrne

Answer 4

sexual psychopath - raped and mutilated a young girl
DR failed as he was aware of his actions
Test - abnormality of mind so different the RM would find it abnormal

Question 5

RMC

Answer 5

recognised medical condition - no definitions of recognised conditions but must be present at the time

Question 6

Hobson

Answer 6

abused wife stabbed her abusive husband
LOC - failed
BWS was later recognised as a medical condition

Question 7

Martin

Answer 7

victim of multiple burglaries so shot an intruder

DR - RMC, depression, and paranoid personality

Question 8

Brennan

Answer 8

male escort stabbed the victim 22 times
DR - RMC, personality disorder and schizophrenia
prosecution didn’t dispute
COA - DR had to succeed

Question 9

Dowds

Answer 9

heavy binge drinkers, D stabbed V 60 times

NOT DR - as acute intoxication is not DR

Question 10

SI

Answer 10

substantial impairment to understand the nature of the conduct or to form a rational judgement
S.53 C&JA
a) to understand the nature and physicality of what they’re doing
b) to form a rational judgement
c) exercise self control

Question 11

Lloyd

Answer 11

SI isn’t total impairment but it has to be more than trivial or minimal

Question 12

Brown

Answer 12

COA confirmed the Lloyd test

Question 13

Golds

Answer 13

D killed his wife
DR - failed and COA upheld conviction and clarified the test of substantial impairment …
SI, RMC must have a significant or appreciable impairment

Question 14

Casual link

Answer 14

a significant contributing factor which causes D to carry out the conduct, but it doesn’t need to be the sole reason

Question 15

Intoxication alone

Answer 15

transient effect and not an injury so doesn’t amount to AMF

Question 16

Di Duca & O’Connell

Answer 16

COA excluded acute intoxication

Question 17

Dowds & Bunch

Answer 17

COA confirmed that intoxication isn’t DR

Question 18

Intoxication & separate disorder

Answer 18

test - without the intoxicant would D have the AMF/RMC which substantially impairs behaviour

Question 19

Dietschmann

Answer 19

kicked a man to death as he’d broken his watch
DR - without the drink D still had the AMF of depression that impaired his actions
HOL confirmed that the drink and depression could both play a role

Question 20

Robson and Swan

Answer 20

confirmed the Dietschmann approach & DR succeed

Question 21

Intoxication and disease

Answer 21

D has to establish that they suffered a brain damage and that the drinking was involuntary

Question 22

Tandy

Answer 22

alcoholic who strangled her daughter
NOT DR - as both parts failed
1 - brain damage
2 - proving drink was involuntary

Question 23

Wood

Answer 23

alcohol dependant, fell asleep whilst V tried oral sex on D so D killed V
COA - alcohol dependence syndrome is now an AMF and the jury have to decide if ADS impaired D’s ability