R v Duguid
[2012] VSC 563
•19 November 2012
| IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA | Not Restricted | |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
S CR 2012 0049
| THE QUEEN |
| v |
| ANTONY JOHN DUGUID |
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JUDGE: | CURTAIN J | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 19 November 2012 | |
DATE OF RULING: | 19 November 2012 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R v Duguid | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2012] VSC 563 | |
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CRIMINAL LAW: Plea of not guilty by reason of mental impairment – Murder – Consent Mental Impairment – Trial by Judge alone – Accused found not guilty by reason of mental impairment – Liable to custodial supervision order pursuant to s 26(2) of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (Vic) – Nominal term of the supervision order is 25 years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr Peter Rose SC | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms Janine Gleeson | Stuthridge Legal |
HER HONOUR:
Antony John Duguid has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Garry Angus by reason of mental impairment. Before the empanelment of the jury and upon agreement between the prosecutor, Mr Rose SC, and counsel for the accused, Ms Gleeson, that the proposed evidence establishes the defence of mental impairment, the matter therefore proceeded before me alone, pursuant to s 21(4) of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (Vic), which provides:
“If a person is charged with an indictable offence and, before the empanelment of a jury, the prosecution and the defence agree that the proposed evidence establishes the defence of mental impairment, the trial judge may hear the evidence and –
(a) if the trial Judge is satisfied that the evidence establishes the defence of mental impairment, may direct that a verdict of not guilty because of mental impairment be recorded; or
(b) if the trial Judge is not so satisfied, must direct that the person be tried by a jury.”
In the early hours of 18 October 2011, the deceased, Garry Angus, was found dead in the kitchen of the newsagency that he and his wife had operated for some 15 years. He was fully clothed and seen to have multiple stab wounds to his torso, face, hands and a large incised wound to the neck. A subsequent autopsy determined that Mr Angus had suffered 30 stab wounds, which were consistent with an infliction by a knife or similar object using severe force, and the cause of death was given as multiple stab wounds.
The accused was arrested the following day and told the police that he had been expecting them because of what he had done to the deceased the day before. He admitted that he had gone to the newsagency to kill Mr Angus, and that he had thrown the knife away and burned the clothing that he had been wearing. He also told the police that the deceased had raped him and infected him with a germ.
The police interview was unable to be completed because Mr Duguid was assessed by Dr Sungaila, a forensic medical officer with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, as unfit for interview on the basis that he was then suffering a mental illness and was fully psychotic.
Mr Duguid was subsequently conveyed to the Melbourne Assessment Prison where he was seen by a psychiatrist and subsequently transferred to the Thomas Embling Hospital, where he has remained since.
The evidence suggests that Mr Duguid has had a 20 year history of mental illness. In 1992, a provisional diagnosis of drug-induced psychosis was made with a differential diagnosis of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Since then, Mr Duguid has had two hospitalisations and was, on two occasions, placed on a Community Treatment Order.
Mr Duguid returned to live in Bendigo in 2004, living with his maternal grandparents until his grandfather died and his grandmother moved to a retirement home. He then lived in a rental property but continued to attend, although not as frequently, his general practitioner in Melbourne. It appears that he repeatedly requested testing for sexually transmitted diseases which, apart from a diagnosis of herpes simplex, proved negative. His last prescription for the antipsychotic medication, Zyprexia, was in February 2011.
It appears that Mr Duguid has developed delusional beliefs about homosexuals and has become immersed in his belief that nature provides signs for how people should live, which he referred to as “nature’s alphabet”. He refers to himself as “Crow”, and that he lives by “Crow law”. He has also written about a belief system which he referred to as “I Ching”.
Dr Pandurangi, forensic psychiatrist, interviewed Mr Duguid at the Thomas Embling Hospital on 11 and 18 July 2012. Dr Pandurangi also gave evidence on the hearing and his report, dated 5 September 2012, was tendered in evidence as Exhibit A.
Dr Pandurangi said that Mr Duguid had not been keen to talk about his past psychiatric history, but did indicate that he had stopped taking medication some few weeks or months before the offence. He told Dr Pandurangi that he was working undercover for the police and that he believed a number of people in Bendigo were molesting children. He had told the police this, but they were not interested and so he had taken the matter into his own hands. He told Dr Pandurangi that he had first contact with Mr Angus a month prior, that he believed he had been raped and as a result of which, he had been infected, and because of this, he decided to kill Mr Angus.
Dr Pandurangi, in considering the defence of mental impairment, was of the view that although Mr Duguid knew what he was doing, he did not know that what he was doing was wrong. Indeed, he believed he was morally justified in his actions. In Dr Pandurangi’s opinion, Mr Duguid committed the offence at a time when he had suffered an acute relapse of his paranoid schizophrenia, and he had available to him the defence of mental impairment.
Dr Danny Sullivan, consultant psychiatrist, also gave evidence on the hearing and his report, dated 15 April 2012, was also tendered in evidence as Exhibit 1. He saw Mr Duguid on 4 March of this year and concluded that he remained psychotic. He experienced delusional beliefs and ideas of reference, and was absolutely insightless as to the nature of these beliefs, which revolved around the I Ching and Crow law. His delusional beliefs, which revolved around belief in the natural world and homosexuals, had been consistently expressed from the early 1990s.
Considering the availability of the defence of mental impairment, Dr Sullivan was of the opinion that although Mr Duguid knew the nature and quality of his conduct, he did not know that the conduct was wrong. That is, he could not reason with a moderate degree of sense and composure about whether the conduct, as perceived by reasonable people, was wrong.
Mr Duguid attracted a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. He was, in Dr Sullivan’s opinion, acutely psychotic at the time of the offence. He has had this diagnosis since 1992, but in Dr Sullivan’s opinion, had been chronically under-treated for it, and his poor compliance with medication rendered the paranoid schizophrenia operational at the time of the murder.
That Mr Duguid was mentally impaired as that term is defined in s 20 of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (Vic) is well established by the evidence, the two psychiatrists being of the one opinion, and there being no dispute.
Accordingly, there being no dispute that Mr Duguid was, at the time of killing Mr Angus, suffering from a mental impairment that had the effect that he did not know that the conduct was wrong, that is, that he could not reason with a moderate degree of sense and composure about whether the conduct, as perceived by reasonable people, was wrong, I am therefore satisfied on the balance of probabilities that it is more likely than not that he was suffering a mental impairment having that effect at the time of killing Mr Angus. Accordingly, I direct that a verdict of not guilty because of mental impairment be recorded.
THE COURT DECLARES AND ORDERS THAT:
- Antony John Duguid is liable to a custodial supervision order pursuant to section 26(2) of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997(Vic).
- Antony John Duguid be under the supervision of the authorised psychiatrist of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (VIFMH) or their delegate.
- Antony John Duguid be committed to the Thomas Embling Hospital.
- Pursuant to section 28 of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 (Vic) the nominal term of the supervision order is 25 years from 10 December 2012, taking into account pre-sentence custody of 386 days.
DATE ORDER MADE AND AUTHENTICATED: 10 December 2012
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