The appellant struck a fellow student with a rock after reading a letter in which she referred to him as a 'nothing'.
At trial, he advanced the defence of non-insane automatism, arguing he was in a dissociative state caused by a psychological blow.
The trial judge acquitted him, finding he was not insane and had acted in a state of automatism brought about by an external cause.
The Court of Appeal reversed the acquittal, holding that the psychological blow was not an externally originating cause and that the dissociative state constituted a disease of the mind.
The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal, affirming that the ordinary stresses and disappointments of life do not constitute an external cause, and that the appellant's condition was a disease of the mind.
