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R v Sullivan [1984] AC 156

By Oxbridge Law TeamUpdated 04/01/2024 07:02

Judgement for the case R v Sullivan

Table Of Contents

  • Defendant attacked Victim while suffering a seizure due to epilepsy that, uncontested by Victim and supported by medical evidence, caused him to attack without consciousness as to what he was doing.

  • The judge ruled out possibility of an automatism direction but allowed an insanity option.

  • Defendant was convicted.

  • CA AND HL dismissed his appeal since automatism is caused by an external factor whereas insanity is a disease of the mind, therefore, Lord Diplock says, judge was right only to leave insanity as a possible option.

    • The HL, quite acceptably, only dealt with the question of why non-insane automatism was not an option (i.e. because epilepsy is not an outside stimulus), and therefore didn’t say whether the jury ought to have found insanity - thus we don’t know - it seems to fit the M’Naghten rules.

  • HL said that one ought to feel sorry for Defendant but could not find that automatism was an appropriate label.

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