What is conduct and

voluntariness?
Conduct Voluntariness

movement involves willful act, free A choice being made of a person's free will
will, ability to control own movement.

Conduct includes voluntariness

Defence of Automatism
• Automatism is the state of a person who, though capable of
action, is not conscious of what he is doing. While in an
automatistic state, an individual performs complex actions
without an exercise of will.
• This applies where the defendant is not legally insane but he is
unable to control what he is doing
• It is an act done by a person who is not conscious of what he is
doing, such as an act done whilst suffering from concussion or
whilst sleep-walking.
 Not
conscious

Unconscious Conscious
(but no control)
i) Unconscious
• Conduct an act unknowingly

• Cases
1. Cogdon (Australia) - Sleepwalking
2. Fulcher v. State (US) - Concussion
3. Quick - Hypoglycaemia
ii) Conscious (but no control)
• Conduct an act in a clear-minded state under a uncontrolable
situation

• Cases
1. Leicester v. Pearson - car hit from behind
2. Hill v Baxter - lost control of car
3. R v Woolley - sneezing
Condition to use defence of automatism
• Not because of disease of mind (insanity)
Case : Sullivan - Epilepsy
• Not under threat
• Not by own fault (self-induced)
Case : Hill v Baxter - lost control of car
Quick - hypoglycaemia
Defence of Automatism in Malaysia
• Defence of Automatism is rarely applied in Malaysia due to the
availability of S84 of Penal Code.
• Case: SINNASAMY (1956) 22 MLJ 36