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Diminished Responsibility (3. Substantially Impairs (D cannot: (understand…
Diminished Responsibility
S.52 Coroners & Justice Act 2009
S.2 Homicide Act 1957
Abnormality of mental functioning (AMF) from a recognised medical condition (RMC) which substantially impaired D's ability to do one of three specified things and explains his act or omission in killing
1. Abnormality of mental functioning
Lord Parker in Byrne: state of mind the reasonable man would term abnormal
2. Recognised Medical Condition
S.52(1)(a)
Any condition listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
The jury decide
E.g.
BWS
(Ahluwalia)
, chronic depression
(Seers)
, sexual psychopath
(Byrne)
3. Substantially Impairs
S.52 (1)(b)
D cannot:
understand nature + quality of his act, form a rational judgement, exercise self control.
Substantially impaired = more than trivial, less than total impairment
(Egan)
E.g.
epilepsy
(Campbell)
Cannot be from intoxication
(Wood)
Can be from alcoholism
(Wood)
Jury told to ignore D's intoxication
(Dietschmann)
4. Explain his Act/Omission
S.52(1)(c)
Establish causation: D's RMC caused him to kill