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Supreme Court 11 August 2006

Regina v Guler

[2006] NSWSC 966

Homicide
CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE MURDER TRIAL BY JUDGE WITHOUT JURY FINDINGS

Citation: Regina v Guler [2006] NSWSC 966
Court: Supreme Court of New South Wales (Common Law Division)
Date: 11 August 2006
Judge(s): Michael Grove J

Background

The accused was charged with murdering his wife at their home in Fairfield on 11 April 2005. The couple had married in 1991 and had three children together. At the time of the killing, the accused had been a patient at the Mental Health Unit of Liverpool Hospital and was on leave from that unit.

An argument developed between the accused and his wife that afternoon, during which she refused his request for money to return to Turkey. Before stabbing her multiple times with a kitchen knife, he was heard to say "I'll kill you." The three children were present in the house and witnessed parts of the attack. The deceased died from stab wounds, two of which damaged her heart.

The trial proceeded before a judge alone, by agreement between the accused and the Crown. The defence did not contest that the physical elements of murder had been established. The central issue was whether the accused was not criminally responsible by reason of mental illness at the time of the killing.

  • Whether the accused was not guilty by reason of mental illness under the applicable legal test, requiring the accused to prove on the balance of probabilities that, due to a defect of reason from a disease of the mind, he either did not appreciate the nature and quality of his act or did not know that it was wrong
  • More specifically, whether the accused could not, by reason of a mental disorder, think rationally about whether his act was right or wrong, or could not reason about the matter with a moderate degree of sense and composure
  • Whether the alternative partial defence of substantial impairment by abnormality of mind, reducing murder to manslaughter, was available
  • Whether the accused's statements and conduct were indicative of consciousness of guilt and manipulation, rather than genuine mental illness

Decision

Grove J first found, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused caused his wife's death by stabbing her and that he intended to kill her at the time. Those findings established murder, subject to the mental illness defence.

On the mental illness defence, his Honour applied the established legal test. He found that the accused did appreciate the nature and quality of his physical act, and that the accused knew in a legal sense that stabbing his wife was unlawful and would attract consequences. The accused's immediate request that the children call police and an ambulance, shortly after the stabbing, was treated as a strong indicator of that knowledge.

However, knowledge of legal wrongness is not the whole of the test. Grove J found that the more relevant question was whether the accused was unable, due to mental disorder, to reason calmly and rationally about whether his act was right or wrong in a broader moral sense. On this question, his Honour preferred the evidence of the two forensic psychiatrists, Dr Westmore (retained by the defence) and Dr Nielssen (retained by the Crown), over that of the clinical psychiatrists involved in the accused's care at Liverpool Hospital. Both forensic experts, having reviewed the full history of the accused's condition and behaviour, concluded that the accused was incapable of calm and rational assessment of the wrongness of his act at the time of the killing, due to a diagnosed mental illness. While the clinical psychiatrists did not share that opinion, they did not categorically deny it either.

Grove J rejected the Crown's argument that the accused's inconsistencies in accounts to doctors reflected consciousness of guilt. He found it more likely that the inconsistencies were manifestations of the accused's deluded thinking. Accordingly, the court entered a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental illness. The alternative defence of substantial impairment was not separately determined given this finding.

Orders Made

  • The accused was found not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness.
  • Pursuant to section 39 of the Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act 1990, the accused was ordered to be detained at an appropriate correctional centre, to be dealt with thereafter in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions.

Key Takeaways

  • The Supreme Court confirmed that the mental illness defence requires more than showing the accused knew in a legal sense that his act was unlawful. The decisive question is whether the accused could reason with a moderate degree of sense and composure about the moral quality of the act.
  • Where forensic psychiatric opinion and clinical psychiatric opinion diverge on the question of mental illness at the time of an offence, a court may prefer the forensic opinion, particularly where it is based on a comprehensive review of the accused's full psychiatric and behavioural history.
  • Contemporaneous evidence of an accused requesting police attendance after a killing may be relevant to whether the accused appreciated the wrongness of the act, but does not resolve the broader limb of the mental illness test concerning rational reasoning capacity.
  • A finding that an accused made inconsistent or false statements to clinicians does not necessarily establish consciousness of guilt. The court found such conduct equally consistent with, and in this case more likely explained by, a deluded thought process arising from mental illness.
  • Under section 39 of the Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act 1990, a special verdict of not guilty by reason of mental illness requires the court to order detention at an appropriate correctional centre pending further statutory processes.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Legislation:
- Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act 1990 (NSW), s 39

Cases:
No cases were cited in the judgment text provided.