Self-Defence: Insane Delusions and Reasonable Force
| Published date | 01 February 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.2014.78.1.886 |
| Date | 01 February 2014 |
| Author | Tony Storey |
| Subject Matter | Court of Appeal |
Court of Appeal
Self-defence: Insane Delusions and Reasonable Force
R v Oye [2013] EWCA Crim 1725
Keywords Insanity; Self-defence; Psychotic delusion; Reasonable force
On 30 June 2011 the police were called to the Cappucino Café in the
Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush, London. A 29-year-old
man, Seun Oye, had been found in the café’s staff area. As he was not a
member of staff, the manager was summoned. He later described Oye as
‘twitching in a strange manner’. The manager locked Oye in the room and
called the police. When they arrived, Oye hid in a void in the ceiling. He
refused to come down and gave bizarre reasons for his refusal to do so:
firstly ‘because I’m selfish’ and later because he was reading a book. He
also threw crockery at the police officers. Eventually he was persuaded to
come down whereupon he was arrested and taken to Hammersmith police
station.
No medical issues were identified, and tests for alcohol or drug con-
sumption came back negative. However, a history of cannabis use was
recorded. He was detained in a cell overnight. The next day, he was seen
in his cell by a specialist drugs worker, but this was terminated by the
worker who felt uncomfortable being alone in the cell with Oye. As the
worker left, and when the cell door was temporarily open, Oye tried to
escape from the custody suite. He punched a male police officer (Sergeant
Watts) in the face, knocking him to the ground, and then punched a
female officer (PC Thompson), displacing some of her teeth and fracturing
her jaw. As other officers arrived, he fought violently, lashing out and
‘shouting or shrieking or wailing’. He was eventually overpowered and
returned to his cell.
On 2 July 2011, Oye was charged with one count of inflicting GBH (for
breaking PC Thompson’s jaw) and two counts of affray (the first relating
to the incident in the café and the second to the violent struggle in the
custody suite). He was also sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983
and detained in hospital, where he continued to act ‘strangely’. However,
he recovered sufficiently to be released three weeks later, on 22 July
2011.
In a pre-trial statement, Oye said that he had woken up on 30 June
feeling ‘paranoid’ and with the feeling that ‘evil spirits’ were watching him.
He had then been guided to the café by ‘good spirits’. In the café, he believed
that the police officers were the agents of the evil spirits and that they
would harm him if he came down from his hiding place in the ceiling. The
next day when he woke up in the police station cell, he believed that he
had ‘acquired supernatural powers’, apparently by drinking water from the
toilet cistern. He took his opportunity to escape, but had to defend himself
by throwing punches when the police in the custody suite ‘rushed him’.
Two psychiatrists, Dr Adegoke and Dr Walsh, interviewed Oye. They
agreed that Oye had experienced a psychotic episode on 30 June, but that
12 The Journal of Criminal Law (2014) 78 JCL 12–15
doi:10.1350/jcla.2014.78.1.886
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