R v Sullivan [1984] AC 156
Citation:R v Sullivan [1984] AC 156
Rule of thumb:What is the test for the insanity defence in criminal law? A person actually has to prove that they were not at all in control of their movements – meaning schizophrenia at the extreme end of the spectrum. This is a very difficult test to satisfy and requires expert medical evidence to be provided & probed before it can be upheld. General medical conditions which affect the brain but do not completely distort it are not enough to rely on this defence.
Judgment:
The test from McNaghten was reaffirmed as the correct test for the insanity defence. The Court emphasised that this could occur where someone carries out automatic movement without consciousness.
Ratio-decidendi:
‘The evidence as to the pathology of a seizure due to psychomotor epilepsy can be sufficiently stated for the purposes of this appeal by saying that after the first stage, the prodram, which precedes the fit itself, there is a second stage, the ictus, lasting a few seconds, during which there are electrical discharges into the temporal lobes of the brain of the sufferer. The effect of these discharges is to cause him in the postictal stage to make movements which he is not conscious that he is making, including, and this was a characteristic of previous seizures which Mr. Sullivan had suffered, automatic movements of resistance to anyone trying to come to his aid. These movements of resistance might, though in practice they very rarely would, involve violence", Lord Diplock
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