Brennan v R.
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LORD JUSTICE DAVIS
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The appellant was convicted of murder after killing Paul Simons and raised the defense of diminished responsibility, supported by unchallenged expert psychiatric evidence. The High Court found the conviction unsafe, quashed it, and substituted a verdict of manslaughter. Legal principles established include the limited scope for juries to reject uncontradicted expert evidence and the circumstances under which a murder charge should be withdrawn from the jury.
Judgment
Lord Justice Davis :
Introduction
On the night of 3 May 2013 the appellant, then aged 22, killed Paul Simons. He was charged with murder. The only issue at trial was the defence raised by the appellant of diminished responsibility. The evidence adduced in support of that defence was from a consultant forensic psychiatrist of acknowledged standing and expertise. Her opinion was firmly and entirely in support of the defence. That opinion was not controverted by any expert evidence adduced by the Crown, who called no expert evidence at all in this regard. The jury convicted of murder. The question is whether such conviction is to be regarded as safe.
This appeal, brought by leave of the single judge, thus throws up a problem of a kind which has been before the appeal court over the years on a number of different occasions. Those cases, however, were decided in the context of a defence of diminished responsibility under the former statutory provisions contained in s.2 of the Homicide Act 1957. The present case is, so far as the researches of counsel go, the first of this particular kind to come before the appellate court in the context of a defence of diminished responsibility under s.2 of the 1957 Act as amended by s.52 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
At the conclusion of the hearing all three members of this court were of the view that the conviction for murder could not, in the particular circumstances of this case, stand and that a verdict of manslaughter should be substituted. The court so announced, giving directions as to the obtaining of further reports for the purposes of sentencing, which is to take place before this court in due course. It also said that it would provide its reasons in writing for its conclusion at a later date. These are those reasons.
The background facts
The appellant was born on 2 August 1990. He has had personality and mental health issues going back to his childhood. He was brought up by his mother as a single parent: he was to describe his relationship with her as a mother in the most positive of terms. He was, however, also to describe a childhood of no happiness and ongoing and repeated sexual abuse by another family member. At all events, the appellant had a history of mental and behavioural problems. He had great difficulties at school. He was small in stature and was bullied. He avoided large groups of people at school and preferred the company of girls. He frequently absconded both from home and fr