NSW Caselaw
New South Wales District Court
CITATION: R v Leaton Richard Kingsly SUTCLIFFE [2008] NSWDC 327
HEARING DATE(S): 15 December 2008
JUDGMENT DATE: 15 December 2008
JURISDICTION: District Court
JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ
DECISION: Mr Sutcliffe is unfit to be tried. Mr Sutcliffe is referred to the Mental Health Review Tribunal. He is remanded in custody until the determination of the tribunal has been given effect to.
CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Fitness to be tried
LEGISLATION CITED: Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act 1990
PARTIES: The Crown Leaton Richard Kingsly Sutcliffe
FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2008/11/0697
COUNSEL: K Magnus (The Crown) N Steel (Accused)
SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Legal Aid Commission
JUDGMENT
1 HIS HONOUR: I have before me today Leaton Richard Kingsly Sutcliffe. An issue has been raised as to his fitness to be tried in accordance with s 11 of the Mental Health Criminal Procedure Act. That issue has been tried by me alone. I note that this inquiry is not to be conducted in an adversarial manner and that neither the Crown nor Mr Sutcliffe has an onus of proof. The Crown tendered two documents without objection from Mr Steel, who appears for Mr Sutcliffe. The first was a report by Dr Westmore and the second a report by Dr Neilson. They are of like mind. They are both of the opinion that Mr Sutcliffe is unfit to be tried. Dr Westmore describes his conversations with Mr Sutcliffe. It is clear that Dr Westmore was unable to have a coherent conversation with Mr Sutcliffe. Dr Neilson agreed with the findings of Dr Westmore, noting that his severe communication disorder would render Mr Sutcliffe unable to provide reliable instructions or follow any proceedings in any adequate way. I will not repeat all of the conversations which Mr Westmore recorded from page 2 of his report but it is apparent that no meaningful communication was had between the doctor and Mr Sutcliffe. I will however refer to some aspects. For example when Dr Westmore asked Mr Sutcliffe whether what he did was wrong, he replied,
We try to embed the page this law was scraped from. If the site blocks framing, you still get the link and a local excerpt.
Last checked with source on —
Checking whether the official page can be embedded…
Plain-English simplify of this law: a short summary, key points, and both sides of the argument. Generated on first view via Replicate, then cached. Vote on what helps your study.
No study brief is cached for this law yet. Sign up to generate a plain-English brief.
Sign up to generate