The availability of a diminished responsibility verdict in the Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill would provide an alternative for juries, the Seanad was told yesterday. It should also reduce the danger of a jury returning an insanity verdict when faced with a person it regarded as not being completely sane, even if he or she did not meet the legal criteria for insanity, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, said.
Initiating the second stage debate on the Bill, he said its provisions covered fitness to plead, a statutory definition of criminal insanity, a new verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity" and a new plea of "guilty but with diminished responsibility" in murder cases.
There would be designated centres to treat people committed to detention under the Bill, he said. It would be a matter for the Minister for Health in consultation with the Minister for Justice to decide what the most appropriate place for treatment was when a prison was designated as a centre.
The definition of the term mental disorder for the purposes of establishing criminal responsibility included a person suffering from a mental illness or handicap, dementia or any disease of the mind, but it excluded intoxication by alcohol or other substances. The question of fitness to be tried, replacing the term fitness to plead, would be determined by a court, without a jury. People found to be unfit would be detained only if they were likely to be dangerous to themselves or to others or to be in need of in-patient treatment.