Anand Beharrylal QC leads in successful defence to Murder

Anand Beharrylal QC leading Neil Ross and instructed by Oya Suleyman of EBR Attridge Solicitors successfully represented a defendant who suffered from long-standing and severe mental illness in securing an acquittal on the charge of murder.

The prosecution evidence involved substantial and complex forensic evidence including blood spatter, DNA, fingerprints, entomology, phone records and banking documents, pathology and psychiatric reports. This evidence was challenged in cross-examination with a view to showing that it was not the defendant who committed the offence, which he had consistently denied. The alternative defence of diminished responsibility was also mounted on the basis that if the defendant had committed the act the psychiatric evidence showed that his mental state at the material time was such that he could not be convicted of murder, only of manslaughter. The latter involved careful and detailed cross-examination of the psychiatrist called by the prosecution.

At the conclusion of the prosecution case the defence made a submission of no case to answer on the charge of murder based on the legal principles arising from a proper application of the Homicide Act 1957 s2, Brennan [2014] EWCA Crim 2387; [2015] 1 Cr. App. R. 12 and Golds [2016] UKSC 61; [2017] 1 Cr. App. R and Matheson (1958) 42 Cr. App. R. 145, CCA. That submission was conceded on the basis that there was no basis to reject diminished responsibility even if the defendant committed the act due to his mental state at the material time. The defendant was thereafter tried for manslaughter on the basis of either lack of the requisite intent or diminished responsibility and convicted of the latter. He was sentenced to a hospital order with restriction under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Anand has extensive experience and expertise in dealing with clients and witnesses suffering from mental health difficulties.

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