Where a jury requests clarification of a defence direction but returns verdicts before the clarification is given, the breach of the general principle will not result in the conviction being set aside if the appellate court is satisfied that the defence was not open on the evidence and the proviso applies. The case illustrates that the statement 'Daddy's sick in the head', even in the context of an acrimonious domestic dispute, is insufficient to found a defence of provocation where the accused's own statements indicate the real trigger was pre-existing rage from an earlier event.
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