R v Dargin [2008] NSWSC 751

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : R v Dargin [2008] NSWSC 751

HEARING DATE(S) : Friday 11 July 2008

JUDGMENT DATE : 25 July 2008

JURISDICTION : Common Law Division

JUDGMENT OF : Hidden J at 1

DECISION : Not guilty by reason of mental illness

CATCHWORDS : CRIMINAL LAW: Trial by judge alone - murder - defence of mental illness

LEGISLATION CITED : Mental Health (Criminal Procedure) Act (ss37, 39)

CASES CITED : R v Derbin [2000] NSWCCA 361 The King v Porter (1933) 55 CLR 182

PARTIES : Regina (DPP) Gregory James Dargin (accused)

FILE NUMBER(S) : SC 2008/1645

COUNSEL : S Huggett (Crown) C Loukas (accused)

SOLICITORS : Director of Public Prosecutions Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) Limited (accused)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COMMON LAW DIVISION CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

HIDDEN J

Friday 25 July 2008

2008/1645 Regina v Gregory James Dargin

REASONS FOR VERDICT 1 HIS HONOUR: The accused, Gregory James Dargin, has been tried before me, sitting without a jury, for the murder of the man he knew as his father, Gregory John Gilchrist. In the afternoon of 7 September 2006, he stabbed Mr Gilchrist in the neck with a steak knife, causing his death. There is no dispute that he acted deliberately, with the intention to kill, and that the elements of murder are made out. In any event, the material before me establishes those elements beyond reasonable doubt. The only issue is whether he has the defence of mental illness, although there is no dispute about that matter either. 2 The accused was born on 5 February 1984 and is now twenty-four years old. Since infancy, he was cared for by his maternal aunt, Mrs Patricia Gilchrist, who was married to the victim. Mr and Mrs Gilchrist were effectively his parents, and he referred to them as "mum" and "dad". They also raised several of his siblings as their own children. 3 In August 1998, when the accused was fifteen years old, he suffered a head injury in a car accident. He was unconscious for some minutes. He had several seizures, but was never prescribed any medication. He began to abuse drugs in his early teens, starting with cannabis and moving on to amphetamines, heroin and methamphetamine or "ice". In his later teens he also started to take pills, including valium and serapax. 4 From 2003, the year he turned nineteen, his drug use brought him into conflict with the law. Over the ensuing years, he was convicted of some relatively minor offences and sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. Mrs Gilchrist observed a deterioration in his physical appearance and his mood. There were incidents of irrational behaviour. He would frequently damage property in the house, and on occasions police had to be called. 5 In 2006, he was still using a variety of drugs regularly. He was in custody between April and July of that year, for reasons which are of no present relevance. While in custody, he reported hearing voices telling him that prison officers were going to kill him and that, if he did not hit people, he himself would be assaulted. He said that, when he looked at people, their eyes would squint and glow because the devil was inside them. He was in fact involved in numerous assaults during this period. He spent his last month of custody in Long Bay Hospital and was prescribed anti-psychotic medication. 6 Following his release, his experience of the voices and his paranoid feelings continued. In late July he was admitted to Cumberland Hospital with psychotic symptoms, and in early August he was transferred to a mental health unit at Blacktown Hospital. During this period his experience of the voices abated, but he continued to have paranoid feelings, believing that people had the devil inside them and that he was authorised by God to "get them". 7 He was discharged from the mental health unit on 7 August 2006. He was prescribed medication but, unfortunately, he stopped taking it and reverted to the use of illicit drugs. There was to be contact with the mental health service in his area, but that did not eventuate. He began again to hear voices commanding him to kill, as the devil was inside people. 8 In the small hours of the morning of 9 August 2006, he phoned police and asked that they come to his home. He told them that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and that he did not want to hurt his family. He complained of hearing voices in his head telling him to kill or to be killed. He asked to be returned to the mental health unit at Blacktown Hospital. Shortly afterwards, Mrs Gilchrist rang police to say that he had woken her, asking if he could sleep on her bedroom floor because he was hearing voices telling him to kill his family. Police attended and conveyed him to the mental health unit. There, he told medical staff that he was "seeing shadows" and hearing voices saying that he must kill his family, and that "they are the devil". 9 He was discharged from the unit on 14 August and, again, ceased taking his medication and reverted to the use of illicit drugs. His experience of voices and paranoid thoughts returned. He came to believe that the TV was sending him messages, that he was being followed, that his family and other people intended to kill him, and that they would do so unless he killed them.