R v Morant

In the case of R v Morant, the defendant was charged with two counts of aiding and counselling suicide, related to the death of the deceased by carbon monoxide poisoning on 30 November 2014. The trial judge was asked to provide directions to the jury regarding the necessary elements that the Crown must prove beyond reasonable doubt for each of the two counts.

The central legal issues in the case were the specific elements required for the jury to find the accused guilty of the two separate counts of aiding and counselling suicide. The court was required to determine whether the accused needed to know of the deceased’s state of mind in order to be found criminally responsible for these offences.

In determining the directions to the jury, the court found that for count 1, the Crown must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused intended, when he counselled the deceased, that the counselling would persuade her to kill herself, and that but for the counselling, the deceased would not have killed herself. For count 2, the court held that the Crown must prove beyond reasonable doubt that when the acts of aiding were done, the accused knew that the deceased would or may kill herself by using the generator to cause her death by carbon monoxide poisoning, and that the accused intended that the acts of aiding would assist or help the deceased to kill herself by carbon monoxide poisoning.

The final orders of the court provided specific directions to the jury regarding the necessary elements for each count of aiding and counselling suicide.