I have committed a criminal offence, but was suffering from a mental health issue at the time. What does this mean for my criminal charge?
When it comes to mental health and the law, you are not alone
The majority of clients that come into our office are people who have been charged with a criminal offence whilst suffering from a mental health issue.
These mental health issues can range from anxiety and depression, to autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.
Some people are aware of their mental illness, whilst others are not. Similarly, some people are already treating their mental illness, whilst others are not.
Either way, criminal charges can be a very harsh reminder that your mental health is important and should be treated appropriately.
Broadly speaking, there are two ways that your mental health is relevant:
Insanity defence
Section 27 of the Criminal Code (WA) sets out what the insanity defence is:
- A person is not criminally responsible for an act or omission on account of unsoundness of mind if at the time of doing the act or making the omission he is in such a state of mental impairment as to deprive him of capacity to understand what he is doing, or of capacity to control his actions, or of capacity to know that he ought not to do the act or make the omission.
- A person whose mind, at the time of his doing or omitting to do an act, is affected by delusions on some specific matter or matters, but who is not otherwise entitled to the benefit of subsection (1), is criminally responsible for the act or omission to the same extent as if the real state of things had been such as he was induced by the delusions to believe to exist.
To use the insanity defence, a person will need to have a diagnosed mental impairment (which can include a whole range of mental health conditions). A medical practitioner (usually a psychiatrist) will give evidence of this and need to determine whether or not you were able to have capacity to understand what you were doing, control of your actions and understand whether or not you were doing the wrong thing.
For this reason, mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression are generally speaking, not the kind of condition that would lead to the use of the insanity defence. However, you should still raise this with a criminal lawyer, if you think it might be.
Relevance on sentence
If your mental illness doesn’t amount to a defence, it doesn’t mean that it is completely irrelevant to your criminal matters.
If you have any kind of mental health condition that played a role in you committing an offence or is a part of your personal circumstances, then the Court will want to know about it when passing a sentence on you.
If you were in a bad place at the time you committed the criminal offence, but have since then obtained some professional help to address your mental health issues, then the Court will also want to know about that. It is possible for these factors to mitigate any sentence that is imposed on you by the Court.
Conversely, if you have a mental illness which played a role in you committing an offence and you have not sought treatment, then it is possible that the Court will consider you to be a further risk of re-offending, and you may not receive the benefit of any mitigation.
Overall, dealing with mental health issues can be difficult. It becomes all the more difficult if you have also been charged with a criminal offence. If you have been charged with a criminal offence, and have or believe that you have a mental illness, please contact our criminal lawyers for advice on what this means for your criminal charge.
We can be contacted on (08) 9500 8915 or at [email protected].