Finegan v Heywood

JurisdictionScotland
Judgment Date21 March 2000
Date21 March 2000
Docket NumberNo 53
CourtHigh Court of Justiciary

HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY

Before the Lord Justice-General (Lord Rodger of Earlsferry), Lord Sutherland and Lord Cameron of Lochbroom

Finegan
and
Heywood

Scots law - road traffic - drunk driving - sleep-walking no defence in circumstances of case

Sleep-walking is no defence

Where a person whose conscious mind was not controlling his actions because of parasomnia drove a car while the proportion of alcohol in his breath exceeded the legal limit, the defence of automatism was not available to him if he knew that previous incidents of such sleep walking had been preceded by his consuming alcohol.

The High Court of Justiciary, sitting as the Court of Criminal Appeal, so held, refusing an appeal by Mr Graham Finegan against his conviction under section 5(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 upon a complaint brought by...

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1 books & journal articles
  • A Long Motor Run on a Dark Night: Reconstructing HM Advocate v Ritchie
    • United Kingdom
    • Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh Law Review No. , May 2010
    • 1 May 2010
    ...relevant to criminal law principles of responsibility. The High Court in Scotland had to consider this issue in Finegan v Heywood41412000 JC 444. The Opinion of the Court was delivered by Lord Justice General Rodger. where the accused was charged with a number of road traffic offences inclu......

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