R v NIXON [1999] NSWSC 794

New South Wales Supreme Court CITATION : R v NIXON [1999] NSWSC 794 CURRENT JURISDICTION : Criminal Division FILE NUMBER(S) : 70064/98 HEARING DATE(S) : 29 July 1999 JUDGMENT DATE : 4 August 1999

PARTIES : REGINA v Luke James NIXON JUDGMENT OF : Barr J at 1

JP Kiely (Crown) COUNSEL : M King (Accused) K Kalda (Crown) SOLICITORS : C McElroy (Accused) CATCHWORDS : DECISION : Not guilty by reason of mental illness

THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES CRIMINAL DIVISION

GRAHAM BARR J

Wednesday, 4 August 1999

70064/98 - REGINA v Luke James NIXON

JUDGMENT 1 HIS HONOUR: The accused is charged with murdering his mother Karen Louise Nixon. He has pleaded not guilty. 2 Notwithstanding his mental state, to which I shall refer later in this judgment, the accused signed a document on 28 July 1999 under the provisions of s 32 Criminal Procedure Act electing for trial by judge alone. I am satisfied that he received appropriate advice before making his election. I am satisfied that the accused had the mental capacity so to elect. 3 This trial arises out of a series of tragic events which must have distressed the family and friends of the deceased. In order to spare them unnecessary anguish I shall summarise only those facts that are necessary for the Court to reach its verdict. The Court extends it sympathy to the deceased's family. 4 The deceased's brother, Mr Paul Barber, drove her home to her flat at Moorebank on Monday 7 October 1996. They had a cup of tea together and when Mr Barber left the premises at about 5.30pm he accidentally left behind a packet of cigarettes. 5 At about 6.45pm a passing motorist noticed a man in the driveway of the deceased's flat, walking towards it. His appearance was consistent with the appearance of the accused. 6 At about 8.30pm neighbours heard a woman screaming, shouting that she was being raped. 7 At about midnight a taxi driver picked up the accused near the Henry Lawson Drive exit from the M5 tollway at Milperra, a place about a forty-minute walk from the deceased's flat. 8 The driver was concerned about the mental capacity of the accused because of the way he spoke and because he was wearing only a shirt. He said that he had lost his trousers in the river. 9 The driver took him to an address in Warrawong, a suburb of Wollongong, where two friends of the accused lived. He asked them to lend him $120 for the fare. They noticed that he was dishevelled and shivering and seemed to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They asked him whether his mother might lend him the money and he told them that he had not seen her for a long time and did not know where she was living. 10 The deceased was found in her flat at about 8.15am on Tuesday 8 October. She had been stabbed three times. One of the wounds penetrated the heart and caused her death. She was wearing the clothes she had been wearing when Mr Barber brought her home. 11 Investigating police officers established that a fingerprint of the accused was on a coffee mug which Mr Barber had used and left in the lounge. His packet of cigarettes was there. Some cigarettes had been taken from it and the packet bore the accused's right thumbprint. 12 There was no evidence that any struggle had taken place inside the premises and no property was stolen. A knife, which was identified as having come from the kitchen drawer, was found in the deceased's hands. A jumper, which had been given to the accused by the deceased in 1995, was found on a chair in the lounge. It bore blood consistent with being from the deceased, the DNA pattern of which occurs at the rate of one in 750 in the community. 13 Police attempted to interview the accused on 10 October 1996 but he was vague and irrational when answering questions. Police took him to the Shellharbour Hospital where he was admitted to the psychiatric ward. 14 The accused has a history of mental illness which came on after he suffered a serious head injury in a motor vehicle accident in September 1988, when he was twelve years old. He suffered left-sided weakness and impaired co-ordination. His concentration and short-term memory were affected. School reports noted a change in personality and a decline in intellectual ability. He became more aggressive, impatient and intolerant. He was vague and at times disoriented. He suffered memory loss. During the year after the accident he suffered post traumatic epilepsy with several motor seizures as well as probably complex partial seizures. He received treatment with anticonvulsant medication. 15 He became despondent about the effects of his impairment on his ability to understand school work and had to be referred to the school counsellor at his high school. 16 He was awarded a substantial sum of money in damages to compensate him for his injuries and disabilities. He began to use illegal drugs. He spent a substantial portion of his award on overseas travel and drugs. 17 On 17 April 1996 police were called to the house in which the accused's mother was then living. The accused was present, seemed to be under the influence of alcohol and was behaving irrationally. He caused a substantial amount of damage to the house and its contents. He admitted to drinking and using amphetamines. He was kept for a week in a psychiatric hospital as an involuntary patient. 18 During the months before his mother's death the accused visited Bangkok and Amsterdam, where he used cannabis every day and took other stimulants and hallucinogens. He returned to Australia about eight weeks before his mother's death. 19 Understandably, his mother, a woman of strong religious conviction, disapproved of the kind of life he was leading. 20 When he was taken to Shellharbour Hospital on 10 October 1996 he was diagnosed as suffering from a psychotic illness on the basis of the presence of religiose and persecutory delusional beliefs, auditory hallucinations and disorder of thought form. He was detained involuntarily for three months. According to his discharge summary, the provisional prognosis was drug induced psychosis. 21 In November 1997 he was admitted to yet another psychiatric hospital as an involuntary patient. His diagnosis was schizophrenia and he was treated with high doses of anti-psychotic medicine in combination with anticonvulsant medicine. 22 He responded to that treatment and on 31 May 1998 told his uncle that he had killed his mother. His uncle advised him to speak to the police and took him to the police station. A formal interview took place, during which these questions and answers were made - Q69 Yeah? A And after all, after all I though, well it wasn't worth her staying around anyway, so I killed her.