R v SP [2017] NSWSC 1579

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v SP [2017] NSWSC 1579 Hearing dates: 13 November 2017 Decision date: 23 November 2017 Jurisdiction: Common Law - Criminal Before: Hidden AJ Decision: I find the accused not guilty by reason of mental illness. Pursuant to s 39(1) of the Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act, I order that the accused be detained in a correctional facility, or such other place as determined by the Mental Health Review Tribunal, until released by due process of law. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – murder - judge alone trial - defence of mental illness – child killed by mother during psychotic episode - special verdict of not guilty by reason of mental illness Legislation Cited: Mental Health (Forensic Provisions) Act 1990 Cases Cited: Hawkins v The Queen (1994) 179 CLR 500 R v McNaghten (1843) 8 ER 718 R v Minani (2005) 154 A Crim R 349, [2005] NSWCCA 226 R v S [1979] 2 NSWLR 1 The King v Porter (1933) 55 CLR 182 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Regina SP Representation: Counsel: Mr J Crespo (Crown) Ms J Manuell SC (Accused)

Solicitors: Solicitor for the Director of Public Prosecutions Legal Aid Commission NSW File Number(s): 2016/2075235 Publication restriction: No

Judgment 1. HIDDEN AJ: The accused is on trial before me, sitting without a jury, for the murder of her 2 year old daughter at the home where they lived in Miller on or about 10 September 2016. I shall refer to her daughter simply as "the child". The only issue in the case is whether the accused has made out the defence of mental illness. After a consultation with her in custody on 26 November 2016, Dr Adam Martin, forensic psychiatrist, found her to be fit to stand trial. 2. The undisputed Crown case is that in the evening of Saturday, 10 September 2016 or the early hours of the following day, the accused drowned the child in the bath during a psychotic episode. She placed a white towel over the child's body and left her in the bath. Some time later, on Sunday, 11 September, she left the home and drove away in her car. 3. That afternoon she was driving in the Katoomba area. She was observed to be speeding and was involved in a motor vehicle accident. Police who attended saw her sitting in the middle of the roadway, holding a bible. She did not answer police enquiries about what had happened, but asked whether they believed in God and made repeated references to God, the devil and biblical matters. The police formed the view that she was mentally disturbed and took her to Blue Mountains Hospital, where she was admitted. 4. At the hospital she provided staff with inaccurate personal details, and falsely stated that the child was being cared for by her (the accused's) father. She gave a history of mental illness, to which I shall refer later, and disclosed that she had recently ceased taking medication prescribed for her. She also said that she had been stressed over the previous week because she had broken up with her boyfriend. I shall also refer to that gentleman later. She was assessed by Dr Pauline Byrne, psychiatrist, who reported that her presentation was "consistent with a relapse of psychotic symptoms with a history of a diagnosis of schizophrenia." She was presenting "with disorganised behaviour, guarded, paranoid and religious thinking," with a history of "deterioration of mental state over the past week in the context of non-compliance with medication and the stressor of ending a relationship." 5. On Tuesday, 13 September 2016, the body of the child was found in the bath at the Miller home by a friend of the accused, Samantha Cranswick. As a result, Detective Senior Constable Brendon Barsic and Detective Senior Constable Marco Buttigieg attended Blue Mountains Hospital, where they had a recorded conversation with the accused. She admitted having drowned the child. The effect of what she recounted was that she was engaged in a deranged form of exorcism, at the expense of the child's life. 6. Among other things, she said: I love my child, but that wasn't my child. There was something in her. Something evil and I saw it. You don't have to believe me but I know and I love my child I wouldn't be crying if I didn't love my child. That wasn't my child. ... In the last few days I've seen what the world really is. And there's a lot of bad in this world. And I saw my child for who she really was. And that wasn't my child. That was, something evil in her. And I saw everyone I thought I loved and trusted, that they're evil. And because I've got a soft heart I didn't see it. But in the last few days it was like I saw the truth. And it, to me where we live is hell. This isn't the real world. Everything's a delusion. 1. In relation to her driving in the Katoomba area, she added: And that's why I sped. I was speeding my car to prove the power of God, because God is power. Not the devil or evil. She said that she was "guided" to come to the Blue Mountains area. 1. In the course of this conversation she also said: I saw her for who she was and I was being tricked. Because that's, that's what the devil whatever you want to call him Lucifer, whatever that's what he does. And as I said over the last few days I've been acting different I've stopped... drinking and I been praying a lot and I don't know it's like I just, I was awake. I usually sleep a lot, I don't eat. I've been, been awake like I can't sleep and for some reason I saw, saw things that other people don't see and I drowned her because I realised that wasn't my child inside her because I believe that we're spiritual, we're souls and that wasn't my child. I drowned her to save her and I believe now she's in heaven. ... I put her head under the water because I never realised before she hated water and I didn't know why. And she hates getting her face wet and I didn't know why and then now I know why. Because there was something evil in her and evil but evil doesn't like water. Asked what she had done when she put the child's face under the water, she said, "I just left her until her soul left her... and the evil thing was gone." She said that she then "just prayed and read the bible." 1. The accused was taken to Katoomba Police Station, where she participated in a lengthy electronically recorded interview. What she had to say about drowning the child was to much the same effect. It is sufficient to refer to a few of the passages in that interview. 2. She said that the child had been really disobedient to her and that she did not understand why... "because I'm so good to her and she always whinges and only to me." She said: "... in that day I think it was Thursday or Friday, I saw like everything that's good, like I saw the good and bad in the world and there was bad in my child, like there was something evil in my child... ." She added: "And there was bad in my own child and I didn't drown her. It was more like I was trying to save her because there was something evil in her and I, I know that, like I learnt that if evil things don't like water, they don't like getting their head in the water, especially, I think, if you have a strong connection to God. Like kind of like holy water, if you've ever watched scary movies. Well, it kind of makes sense." 1. She said that the child was "saying all this stuff," and that she did not "get her." She said of the child, "She's a 2 year old, how come she's saying all this stuff?" She added: "And she was, I'm not saying my actual child was evil. Maybe something happened in the last few days, like it's happened to me, something went bad in her? And I, I wanted it to get out because it wasn't my child. I would never hurt my child, I love my children, all my children. But that wasn't my child." 1. Asked what she thought would happen when she held the child's head under water, she replied, "She'll return to heaven." She said that she placed a clean white towel to cover her "out of respect." Asked what her intention was in putting the child in the bath, she said, "to get rid of the evil in her." 2. She told police that she had broken up earlier that week with her partner, Migel Mediarito, with whom she had had a relationship since late 2015. Her description of the circumstances of the break up was bizarre. According to her, he told her he had a nightmare that the two of them had been in a restaurant and two doctors attended, saying that "there was evil here and there." She said that after this there were "supernatural things happening to us." She said that she didn't want to be around him, that she didn't like "his vibe" and that he was "scared after that happened." She felt that he had changed. She added that she went to see a psychic because she did not know what to do. She described a deterioration of the relationship thereafter, and she told him "to get out because he's scaring me." 3. She also told police about her movements on the Sunday, 11 September from leaving home in the morning to her driving in the Blue Mountains area in the afternoon. She described the whole process as having been guided by God. It included her going to the Palm Beach area, where she had earlier lived. There she "baptised" herself by immersing her head in the water of Palm Lake. 4. She acknowledged having provided a false name and address at the hospital because she knew that she was going to "end up in gaol, because I knew what I'd done."