Mental Illness and Impairment Defences in Victoria

There are many types of defence of actions used. Here we briefly summarise what each means.

     Automatism – insane and sane, mental illness
This is a mental impairment defence whereby the person being accused of a crime actually committed the offence involuntarily.  This means they didn’t have any control over what they were doing. It comes in two varieties – the insane automatism and the sane automatism.

  • Insane automatism is the situation where the individual has mental illness, which can include schizophrenia, brain injuries,  or brain tumours.
  • Sane automatism is caused by something that is not considered a disease of the mind, but impacts brain function nonetheless – this can include a concussion, low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia), or psychosis brought on by drugs.

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