Jury acquits sex-while-asleep man

This nonsense succeeds regularly in Britain. Looks like it is spreading

A Northern Territory [Australia] man has been found not guilty of gross indecency and sexual intercourse without consent after a jury accepted his defence that he suffered "sex-somnia" and may have been capable of having sex in his sleep. The jury heard that Leonard Andrew Spencer, 48, of Nhulunbuy, in northeast Arnhem Land, suffered from somnambulistic episodes, had a history of sleepwalking and had on a previous occasion tried to have sex while asleep.

Judge Steve Southwood thanked the jury, which took an hour to reach its verdict, for suffering through long legal argument in what he believed was the first case of its type in Australia.

Mr Spencer's lawyer, Jon Tippett QC, said no Australian had ever successfully used "sex-sleep," as the condition is commonly known, as a defence. He was reluctant to claim the sex-sleep defence as a legal first, believing the jury may have relied on other matters as well to reach its verdict.

A woman who was house-sitting in Mr Spencer's house said that on the morning of June 2 last year she had risen early and taken her boyfriend to work. She claimed she returned home and went back to sleep but awoke at about 7.20am to find a man, whom she initially thought was her boyfriend, having sex with her. She fled the house and Mr Spencer was arrested. While he accepted he had mistakenly gone to the woman's bedroom, he claimed no recollection of having sex.

A psychiatrist, Lester Walton, gave evidence that memory loss was "a hallmark of somnambulist behaviour" and believed it was possible that Mr Spencer suffered from sexsomnia. Dr Walton based this on the fact that Mr Spencer's estranged wife, from whom he had recently separated, had testified that when they were together he would sleepwalk on a monthly basis. Dr Walton said Mr Spencer was depressed and on medication, which may have triggered his somnambulist events.

Mr Tippett also concentrated on the fact that vaginal swabs taken from the complainant revealed no trace of Mr Spencer's DNA; and that police - in what Mr Tippett called "an evidentiary train-wreck" - had failed to swab clothing and bedsheets that might have either helped or hindered his client's case. He argued the case that his client had sex with the complainant at all had not been made out.

Mr Spencer cried in the dock and said he wanted his personal items returned. He also asked the judge if he could go. Permission was granted.

Report here







Picture of slain woman opens trial for police drug thug

A Fulton County jury saw Kathryn Johnston on Monday shortly after seeing an Atlanta police officer accused of playing a role in her death. Prosecutor Kellie Hill put a photograph of the 92-year-old woman on a monitor as the trial in Superior Court began. Then a steady BANG, BANG, BANG . . . rang out from a recorder, eventually reaching the number 39. "That was 39 shots, the last thing Kathryn Johnston heard," Hill quietly told the jury before testimony started. "She died in the sanctity of her home."

Hill looked at Officer Arthur Tesler, seated at the defense table. "The evidence will show that the defendant never fired his weapon. But the evidence will also show that his actions led to the death of Mrs. Johnston." Hill told jurors that this was a case about "drugs, deceit, death and disgrace." Tesler is charged with violating his oath of office, lying in an official investigation and false imprisonment because police illegally surrounded her house in northwest Atlanta without proper authority.

One of Tesler's partners, Officer J.R. Smith, lied to a judge to get a no-knock search warrant for Johnston's home on Neal Street after a drug dealer they had arrested told them that there was a kilo of cocaine in the house. Smith told the judge they had verified that drugs were being sold at the house when they had only taken the dealer's word.

Johnston fired one round from a revolver when she heard officers breaking down her door, prompting a fusillade from the officers. They planted drugs in the basement of the house once they realized they had been misled and had killed an innocent woman. Tesler and two other officers accused in the case are white and Johnston was black. The case has fueled outrage and suspicion in the African-American community, and politicians and political organizers monitored the trial Monday morning.

Tesler's lawyer, William McKenney, said Atlantans had every reason to be suspicious of the police. He described a department in which lying to get search warrants and planting drugs were routine practices fueled by arrest quotas demanded of the narcotics units —- nine arrests a month and two search warrants per officer.

He contended his client, a relatively new narcotics investigator and a six-year veteran of the force, was not a part of the lies told to secure the warrant and was set up by his more experienced former partners, Smith and Gregg Junnier, the most senior member with 18 years with the department, McKenney said. "You will learn that 'insurance drugs' were kept by Junnier and Smith, basically throw-downs," McKenney said. "If they searched a house and they didn't find drugs, they would plant drugs."

Both Smith and Junnier, who were facing life in prison for Johnston's death, have entered into plea bargains and are expected to testify against Tesler. Smith and Junnier face up to 12 and 10 years, respectively, depending on cooperation. Tesler faces 15 years. "These were senior officers who were instructing the rookie," McKenney said.

Report here


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