25 June 2014

Knives and Capacity

In R v Opie [2014] NSWSC 814 the New South Wales Supreme Court has entered a special verdict of not guilty of the charge of murder by reason of mental illness against an accused.

At  the time of killing Opie was suffering from a bipolar affective disorder, severe depression and acute psychosis, of sufficient severity so as to have made him unaware of the wrongfulness of his actions in stabbing the deceased and was unable to control himself.

His conduct at the scene in stabbing himself multiple times was consistent with him being mentally impaired.