Anger after acid tripper off hook

Meagan Dillon   | The NT News | 12 March 2012

A TERRITORY magistrate has been accused of opening "Pandora's box" after dismissing an assault case because the man was on his first "acid" trip and wasn't responsible for his actions.

James Kidd, 22, had assault charges against him dismissed in Darwin Magistrates Court because he was incoherent and not criminally responsible.

Magistrate John Lowndes used a unique part of the NT Criminal Code to find Kidd did not "act with the necessary mental elements" to be held accountable for his crime.

"In order to be criminally responsible there needs to be a marriage between the physical elements and the mental elements," he said.

Dr Lowndes found that Kidd - who was on his first LSD trip and couldn't remember attacking June Moffatt in her front yard - was not in his right mind.

Ms Moffatt, 52, said she fears this will become a precedent for future offenders to escape prosecution.

YOUR SAY
"So let me get this straight! You can get off your face on any drug or drink and cause grief to any one without any worries of prosecution? What has happened to our justice system?"
Concerned citisen

"It's opened Pandora's box," she said. She said her attacker took the acid of his own free will and should have to take responsibility for what happened.

On November 26, 2010, Ms Moffatt was punched in the head at least three times before being picked up and thrown to the ground where she lost consciousness.

The violent attack was sparked by Ms Moffatt's threats to call police if Kidd did not leave the front yard of her Millner home. "He had enough wits about him to react when I said the word cops," she said.

Prosecutor Sam Burke said: "His behaviour went from extremely violent and agitated to confused, apologetic and scared.

"He hit her deliberately, in response to her words, hard, and it was undoubtedly intentional."

But Dr Lowndes said Kidd had to "foresee" the possible consequences of his conduct to be criminally responsible - but couldn't when experimenting with drugs for the first time.

He said Kidd would not have known the drugs would "predispose him to violent behaviour".

Ms Moffatt said she was "devastated' the charges were thrown out of court simply because her attacker was oblivious to his crime.

Age of criminal responsibility is too low, say brain scientists

Alok Jha | The Guardian | 13 December 2011

Parts of the brain responsible for decision-making and impulse control are still developing during a person's teens

The age of criminal responsibility in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could be "unreasonably low" given the emerging understanding of how slowly the brains of children mature, according to a report by the Royal Society. Widespread differences between individuals also mean that the cut-off age at which children are deemed fit to stand trial, at 10 years old, might not be justifiable in all cases.

The comments are part of an assessment carried out by a panel of scientists, lawyers and ethicists of how developments in neuroscienceand brain imaging should inform the future practice of law. Neuroscience and the Law, published on Tuesday, examines how scientific understanding of the brain has advanced in recent decades and the light this has shed on behaviour. The report also assesses the reliability of lie detector tests.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a child is deemed fit to stand trial at the age of 10, but in recent years it has been shown that important changes in the brain's neural circuits go on well into a person's teens. In Scotland children cannot be convicted until they are 12.

"A number of psychologists have already shown that adolescents are not wholly responsible individuals and are inclined to take risks and behave in irresponsible ways," said Nicholas Mackintosh, an emeritus professor in the department of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge and chair of the Royal Society panel. "What neuroscience has shown in the last 10 years is that this is at least associated with the fact that the brain continues to develop throughout adolescence."

In particular, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making, impulse control and cognitive control, is among the slowest parts of the brain to mature and is not fully developed until around the age of 20. "Neuroscience adds to the evidence that a 10 or 12 or 15-year-old does not have a fully adult brain in many important respects," said Mackintosh.