defence of insanity

• only relevant at the time of the defence
• law realting to rules of insanity come from M'Naughton rules - 3 elements that must be established on the basis of probabilities

• 1) defect of reason - inability of the D to use powers of reason. mere failings to exercise theese powers is not enough - Clarke!!!

· 2)"disease of the mind" - legal term not a medical term, must be physical i.e. not brought about by external factors i.e. drugs : "disorders of te brain affecting powers of reason, memory and understanding"

· examples epilepsy (sullivian), arter-scerosis- (kemp), diabetes - failure to take insulin (hennesy), clinical depression and schizophrenia

3) Must not know that "nature and quality of the act was wrong" - refer to physical nature and quality of cat not whether it was morally wrong!!! E.g. think chopping wood when actually chopping off someone’s head!!!

• requires D to D not to know what he is doing is legally wrong - Windle knew what he was doing was legally wrong and therefore he was not insane