Unlocking Criminal Law by Tony Storey

Author:Tony Storey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317219361
Publisher: Routledge

JUDGMENT

‘Automatism due to a hypoglycaemic attack will not be a defence if the attack might reasonably have been avoided. If the driver ought to have tested his blood glucose level before embarking on his journey, or appreciated the onset of symptoms during the journey, then the fact that he did suffer a hypoglycaemic attack, even if it caused a total loss of control over his limbs at the moment the car left the road, would be no defence.’

In Coley, McGhee and Harris [2013] EWCA Crim 223, the second defendant (McGhee) invoked the defence of automatism, in response to charges of actual bodily harm (ABH) and wounding with intent, on the basis that he had drunk himself into an involuntary state. This was rejected by the trial judge and the Court of Appeal upheld his convictions on the grounds that, even if he was in an automatic state, he had induced it ‘through his voluntary fault’. The fact that he was also taking prescription medication – temazepam – to help him deal with tinnitus made no difference, because he was ‘well aware of the dangers of taking them together’. This meant that his true defence was intoxication (discussed in section 9.3), not automatism. Hughes LJ stated:

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