Stapleton v The Queen [1952] HCA 56

High Court of Australia Dixon C.J. Webb and Kitto JJ. Stapleton v The Queen [1952] HCA 56

ORDER Leave to appeal granted and order that the motion be treated as an appeal and heard instanter. Appeal allowed. Order that the verdict and sentence be set aside and that there be a new trial upon the information for murder.

The Court delivered the following written judgment:—

Dixon C.J.

Leave to appeal is granted and it is ordered that the motion be treated as the appeal and heard instanter. The appeal is allowed, and there will be an order that the verdict and sentence be set aside and that there be a new trial. We shall give our reasons later.

Oct. 29 Dixon C.J., Webb and Kitto JJ.

The applicant Terence Charles Stapleton was convicted of murder before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and sentenced to death. He applied under s. 21 of the Supreme Court Ordinance 1911-1936 N.T. to this Court for leave to appeal against the conviction. We granted leave to appeal and ordered that the application be treated as an appeal which appeal should be heard instanter. We then set aside the verdict and sentence and ordered a new trial. We did not then give our reasons because we thought it better to reduce them to writing. We now proceed to state the reasons why we considered that the verdict ought not to stand and there should be a new trial.

The charge was that the appellant did murder one William Bryan Condon, a constable of police, at Katherine on 9th June 1952. The defence made for the appellant was that he was insane at the time of the commission of the offence.

The appellant is a young man of twenty-two years of age who appears to have come from Tasmania. He belongs to a family with a history of mental deficiency and abnormality. On his father's side his grandmother, three aunts and an uncle were mentally abnormal or deficient and, if not all, three of them at least appear to have been confined in institutions. His uncle is stated to have developed at the age of twenty-two years a condition of extreme abnormal excitement and to have been considered very dangerous. He was certified insane and admitted to a mental hospital. On his mother's side the appellant had an uncle who committed suicide and an aunt who was admitted into a mental hospital. Concerning the appellant's own personal history little appears. He lived in Katherine and his occupation is described as that of a plant operator.