Unfitness to Plead Consultation Responses - Law Commission ...

kept in a shared wardrobe at the hostel for former patients in the
local mental hospital, in which hostel they all reside. The clothes
are not unusual in design, style or fabric, and consist of jeans
and other casual clothing, all bought from a well known large
retailer of inexpensive clothing, which operates from a chain of
retail warehouses. Each of J K and L has been seen wearing them
and treating them as his own.
(i) J is fit to plead. He agrees now in the light of the
evidence called at trial that the clothes were M’s, but
says that he was wearing them because at the time he
wore them, he then genuinely but mistakenly believed
that the clothes were his, and thus, if the prosecution fail
to disprove what he says, is not guilty of theft.
(ii) K is fit to plead. He says that he was wearing them
because he believed that the clothes had belonged to a
former resident who had left them behind and had
abandoned them, and thus, if the prosecution fail to
disprove what he says, is not guilty of theft.
(iii) L is unfit to plead. However N, a volunteer worker at
the hostel, can give evidence that when he discussed the
clothing with L before the events in question, L (like K)
was convinced that the clothes had been left behind and
had been abandoned, and was so for reasons in which
his illness played no part.
(b) It would be profoundly unjust if the jury could not hear the
evidence from N in the section 4A proceedings.
(c) If that approach is appropriate for theft, then so must it be for
robbery, where proof of theft is an essential ingredient, but
where there are potential risks to the public.
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