Goal-directed activities such as selecting a vehicle, locking doors, driving at high speed over a considerable distance while making driving selections to evade police, and running from a crash scene are inconsistent with automatic behaviour independent of the exercise of will, even where the accused was in a confusional state. Where a confusional state is caused in part by a head injury sustained through no fault of the accused, the diminished culpability must be reflected in the sentence.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 2 later cases that cite this judgment.