‘I was sleepwalking’: Can you kill someone while you’re asleep?

Published

3 months ago

June 22, 2024

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“I was sleepwalking,” a public schoolboy, wearing only his boxing shorts, was heard to say after brutally attacking two fellow students and a housemaster.

Henry Roffe-Silvester, a teacher at the exclusive boarding school, was awoken in the middle of the night by footsteps coming from the dormitory directly above.

He went to investigate, and as he opened the door to the pitch-dark room, he saw a silhouetted figure who turned and struck him on the head with a hammer.

“I stumbled backwards into the corridor,” said Mr Roffe-Silvester, during his attacker’s two-month trial. “There was a second blow – I can’t remember if it was before I stumbled back – that’s a little bit hazy for me.”

He suffered six blows to the head before managing to get the weapon off the boy he now recognised as one of his students, who “slumped down” in a squat position and was heard to say: “I was dreaming.”

When paramedics arrived at Blundell’s School in Taunton, Devon, they found “carnage” like “a scene from a horror film” with blood over the desks, the walls and the cabin-style beds.

There was no question the boy, then 16, caused the “awful injuries” to the housemaster and two sleeping dorm-mates – both boys suffered skull fractures, as well as injuries to their ribs, spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding.

‘Zombie apocalypse’

He told a jury at Exeter Crown Court he kept hammers by his bed for “protection” from “the zombie apocalypse” or the end of the world.

He remembered going to sleep on 8 June last year, he said, and the next thing he recalled was being in the room which was “covered in blood”.

“I knew something really bad had gone on and everyone was looking towards me,” he said.

“I didn’t remember doing anything so the only rational thing I was thinking was that I was sleepwalking.”

Prosecutors said he had armed himself with three claw hammers, then waited for his victims to fall asleep before attacking them.

But his barrister, Kerim Fuad KC, said he must have been “sleepwalking to have committed these extraordinary acts” – meaning he would be not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity.

The history of the sleepwalking defence

The idea that acts of violence can be committed by people who are sleepwalking isn’t new – since the 14th century, the Catholic Church recognised the idea that a sleeper shouldn’t be held responsible for killing or injuring someone.

The first English case is believed to be the Old Bailey trial of Colonel Culpeper in 1686, who was said to have shot a guardsman and his horse during a dream. He was convicted of manslaughter while insane but pardoned a few weeks later.

More incidents came to light in the Victorian era as scientists began studying the mind, among them the famous case of Simon Fraser, a known sleepwalker, from Glasgow.

Believing he was saving his family from a wild beast that had burst through the floorboards, he killed his 18-month-old son by throwing him against a wall. He was cleared but was told by the judge to sleep alone in a locked room for the rest of his life.

More recently, in 2005 Jules Lowe was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and made the subject of a hospital order after claiming he was sleepwalking when he beat his father to death at the family home in Walkden, Greater Manchester, after a drinking session.

Three years later, father-of-two Brian Thomas strangled his wife Christine while they were on holiday in west Wales, believing an intruder had broken into their campervan.

The nightmare was suggested to have been triggered by an earlier incident when they were disturbed by youths doing wheel spins in the car park.

Thomas was described as a “decent man and a devoted husband” by the judge after being cleared of murder when prosecutors dropped the case.

The sleepwalking defence is rare – according to sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley, who was not involved in the Blundell’s case, and tells Sky News it has been successfully used just 200 times in the English-speaking world.

Sexsomnia

But it has become increasingly common over last 30 years, says Dr John Rumbold, a lecturer at the Nottingham Law School, who tells Sky News there is a growing number of sleep experts and a greater awareness among lawyers.

In the past, reported cases more commonly involved violence, he says, but now around 80% to 90% of cases involve sexsomnia, an extreme variant of sleepwalking, that can cause people to engage in sexual activity while unconscious.

“Very often it’s drunk young men” who are accused of rape or other sex offences, he says. “They don’t really have any other defence and it’s fairly complex actions.”

Dr Stanley believes that some people who are guilty have successfully used the defence in the past and says there is a lack of knowledge of the subject among judges, lawyers and juries.

What is sleepwalking and how common is it?

Around 5% to 10% of the adult population are believed to be regular sleepwalkers, according to experts, with the condition more common in children, peaking between the ages of nine and 13, and typically occurs in the first 90 minutes of sleep.

“We all have the capacity to sleepwalk,” says Dr Neil Stanley, who says some people will do it just once in their lives, while for others it’s a more regular occurrence.

He explains sleepwalking happens when the parts of the brain that control movement and speech wake up.

This can be triggered by anything that disturbs, sleep, such as medication, alcohol, drugs, or “sleeping on your mate’s couch after a few bevvies”.

Sleepwalking is so common that hotel staff may get training in how to deal with a semi-naked guest wandering the corridors.

But the stereotypical perception of a zombie-like state with eyes closed and arms stretched “is a nonsense”, says Dr Stanley.

“They can appear for all intents and purposes, to be awake. But what they can’t do is they cannot interact with the environment as though they were awake,” he says.

It usually involves “doing something that if you did it at 1pm fully clothed wouldn’t be of any interest”, but the “fact that you’re doing it at 1am and you’re in your PJs is probably the thing that differentiates it”.

Dr Stanley adds: “Sleepwalkers do things that are instinctual behaviours. So, they will go to the fridge and get a pint of milk, they will go to the toilet, which, if they’re in a hotel or staying over somewhere, means they pee in the wardrobe or more tragically go over the balcony and kill themselves.

“We know that some sleepwalkers actually can drive while they are asleep. But none of these are interesting other than the fact that the person has no idea that they’re doing them.”

He says that in theory he could use his expertise to tell someone how to behave and what to say to convince a court they were a genuine sleepwalker.

‘Get out of jail free card’

Some see it as “a get out of jail free card”, he says, but he adds that “people, in their sleep, can kill, they can rape, they can assault – sexually or physically”.

Barrister Ramya Nagesh, who has written a book on sleepwalking and other automatism defences tells Sky News that just because it is being used more “that doesn’t mean that it’s being used in bad faith because you do have to have expert opinion”.

She thinks there should be a change in the law to allow a verdict of not guilty by virtue of a medical condition to encompass cases involving sleepwalking, epileptic fits and hypoglycaemia.

“Automatism is an outright acquittal – it feels a bit odd to say we’ll excuse them, but they might go off and do it again,” she says.

“They don’t deserve to go to prison and wouldn’t benefit from a hospital order, so it would give judges a bit more power.”

The public schoolboy, now 17, who can’t be identified because of his age, has been found guilty of three counts of attempted murder after a jury deliberated for 40 hours and he will be sentenced in October.

His relatives told the jury there was a history of sleepwalking in the family and he said his mother had found him at the bottom of a staircase in their home around a decade ago.

A ‘textbook example’?

After the attacks, the teenager told a student he was watching horror movies, while others heard him say: “I am sorry, I was dreaming.”

At his trial, sleep forensic expert, Dr Mark Pressman, who has decades of experience in the field, has seen 20,000 patients and more than 100 cases of sleepwalking violence, was called as a witness.

He described the case in court as a “textbook example”, explaining sleepwalkers could be fearful for their lives and “respond with violence to protect themselves at a very primitive level”.

“The defendant swivelled around and attacked his housemaster without knowing who he was,” he said. He was not aware he had attacked the housemaster.”

But another expert witness, Dr John O’Reilly, told the court he did not believe the boy was asleep as a sleepwalker does not initiate violence because it is triggered by noise or touch.

Prosecutors said he had been awake shortly before the attacks, with an examination of his iPad showing he had been listening to music on Spotify, and that he had a fascination with serial killers.

‘Lucky to still be alive’

In his room, he kept a locked stash of what other pupils described as “weapons”, including shards of broken glass, screwdrivers and multiple hammers.

Police discovered he had carried out internet searches for “rampage killers”, “school massacres”, “murder with a hammer” and “killer kills while sleeping”.

He had sent alarming messages to one of his victims in the months before the attack – including a character from the horror film Texas Chainsaw Massacre wielding a hammer.

“These violent actions were repeated again and again,” said prosecutor James Dawes KC, and there was “no other explanation for his actions other than his intention to kill them”.

Following his conviction, senior crown prosecutor Helen Phillips said the two boys were “lucky to still be alive”.

“The boy, who had a macabre interest in murder, serial killers, and violence, showed no remorse and naïvely thought that by concocting a story about sleepwalking at the time of the attack he could evade punishment,” she added.

UK

The children who kill: Are they getting younger?

Published

9 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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The children who kill: Are they getting younger?

When 19-year-old Shawn Seesahai was beaten and hacked to death in a savage machete attack in a Wolverhampton park, detectives were shocked to discover his killers were just 12 years old.

Days earlier, in another part of the country, Alfie Lewis, 15, was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old boy outside a primary school in Leeds.

Later the same month, a girl and boy went on trial in Manchester for what was described as the “sadistic” knife murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey when they were both aged 15.

Murders carried out by children have always horrified us as a society – but are they getting more common or are killers getting younger?

A Sky News analysis of the available Office for National Statistics data on the number of suspects aged under 16 who have been convicted of homicide – murder, manslaughter and infanticide – shows a relatively flat trendline from 2006/7 to 2022/3.

The percentage of homicide convictions going to under-16s compared with other ages doubled over 10 years, however, from about 1 in 50 in 2012/13 to 1 in 25 in 2022/23.

The 2022/23 figure is the highest since at least 2008/09, but as the percentage of under-16s is low overall the averages can be heavily skewed by relatively few convictions.

‘Much more serious and extreme’

Dr Simon Harding, a criminology expert, thinks there’s been “an increase in serious violence in young people” and that there is a greater “acceptance of extreme levels of violence between” children.

“Even something that might have been settled with fisticuffs or anti-social behaviour can suddenly dramatically turn into something much more serious and extreme,” he says.

“What 10 years ago might have been a punch in the face, five years ago might have been a stab to the arm or leg is now a stab to the neck or heart, which can lead to death.”

Bardia Shojaeifard was found guilty of murder after a jury heard how he attacked Alfie on his way home on 7 November last year “in revenge” for an altercation a week earlier.

He had posed for pictures with knives and took a 13cm-long kitchen knife he used to kill Alfie from his home with him to school in the Horsforth area of Leeds.

Sentencing him to life detention with a minimum term of 13 years in June, a judge described Shojaeifard as “outwardly normal” but with a “worrying interest in knives”.

Shawn, who had been walking through Stowlawn playing fields in Wolverhampton with a friend on 13 November last year, was struck on his back, legs and skull, while the fatal wound was more than 20cm deep and punctured his heart.

The boys responsible, the UK’s youngest knife murderers – who were detained for at least eight-and-a-half years – are believed to be the youngest children to be found guilty of murder since Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

Thompson and Venables were aged just 10 when they abducted, tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger in 1993 and 11 when they were found guilty of murder.

A quarter of a century earlier, 11-year-old Mary Bell was sentenced to life detention in 1968 after being found guilty of manslaughter for fatally strangling two boys, aged four and three.

She was also aged just 10 at the time she killed her first victim.

But Sharon Carr is believed to be the youngest girl in the country to have committed murder.

Carr was 12 when she fatally stabbed and mutilated stranger Katie Rackliff, 18, after she left a nightclub in Camberley, Surrey, in 1992, but she wasn’t convicted for another five years.

In another crime that shocked the nation, Ricky Preddie was 13 and his brother Danny was 12 when they killed 10-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor in 2000, although they weren’t jailed for his manslaughter until 2006.

Is there now a greater ‘willingness to inflict pain’?

So there have always been cases of children who commit murder and other shocking crimes, but Dr Harding says: “We just tend to forget.”

However, from his experience preparing expert reports on court cases involving gang crime, exploitation and modern slavery, he says he has noticed a greater “willingness to inflict pain and suffering”.

Earlier this year, Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe were jailed for life with minimum terms of 22 years and 20 years respectively after they were found guilty of murdering Brianna when they were both aged just 15.

Jenkinson lured the vulnerable teenager, who was transgender, to Linear Park in the village of Culcheth, near Warrington, where she was stabbed 28 times in the head, neck, chest and back with a hunting knife on 11 February last year.

The pair had a fascination with violence and torture, prepared a “kill list” and meticulously planned Brianna’s “frenzied and ferocious” murder for weeks, their trial heard.

Jurors were told it was “difficult to fathom” how they could share such “dark thoughts” and carry out such a “disturbing” crime.

Beyond the high-profile cases that attract significant media attention, much of the country’s gang violence, including children killing other children, is largely hidden from the public, says Dr Harding.

He’s seeing “quite extreme things that wouldn’t happen a few years ago”, such as disabled people subjected to levels of cruelty bordering on torture, and young women raped and waterboarded by the people forcing them to sell drugs.

A different Dr Harding, forensic psychiatrist Dr Duncan Harding, works with adults and children who commit serious crimes. He says we really don’t know if killers are getting younger or youth violent crime is increasing because the evidence just isn’t there.

But the reporting of crime and the expansion of social media use means cases which may not have passed the threshold for widespread coverage in the past gain more traction, adding to a perception that it is.

‘Dehumanisation is spreading’

Even if youth violence isn’t on the rise, the “horrifying” crimes we see reported aren’t acceptable and we have to, as a society, try to understand what’s going on and try to improve things, Dr Duncan Harding adds.

The psychiatrist, who has provided expert evidence in court cases involving homicide, serious violence and terrorism, and has recently released his memoir The Criminal Mind, says the “dehumanisation” seen in gang violence seems to be spreading beyond gangs.

Our divided society is suffering an existential crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic, which is exacerbated by social media, he says, and he also highlights cuts to services for young people due to austerity as a potential factor.

But “stripping away youth clubs isn’t going to in itself lead to someone who’s going to stab or kill someone”, he says, and children don’t always commit violent crimes because of mental illness or difficulties in their lives.

“Obviously, they’re not normal, well-adjusted people, but in my experience, it’s not as straightforward as that either,” he says. “I don’t think that all offenders are victims.”

‘You have to have proper sentencing for knife crime’

The potential solutions are just as complicated – the psychiatrist suggests a public health approach that recognises the “epidemic” of knife crime among vulnerable young children, with schools, health workers and police working together to spot the early warning signs.

But he also supports the wider use of stop-and-search and the government ban on so-called zombie-style knives to try to keep weapons out of children’s hands, and says there need to be consequences at the point where youngsters are carrying knives.

Shawn’s parents urge children to “think about what they’re doing” and not to carry a weapon, but want to see tougher sentences for youngsters like the boys who killed their son.

“You have to have a proper sentencing for knife crime,” says his father Suresh Seesahai.

“Murder is murder. Murder is no coming back. If you murder someone they can’t come back… Life sentence is the best for you.”

UK

Mohamed al Fayed’s son Omar says allegations against father have ‘thrown into question, the loving memory I had of him’

Published

9 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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Mohamed al Fayed's son Omar says allegations against father have 'thrown into question, the loving memory I had of him'

Mohamed al Fayed’s son Omar says he is “horrified” about the allegations against his late father, saying it has “thrown into question the loving memory I had of him”.

A string of accusations against the billionaire former Harrods and Fulham FC owner, who died last year aged 94, have emerged in recent days following an investigation by the BBC.

The claims include five accusations of rape and multiple allegations of sexual abuse. Among those who have come forward are former staff at the luxury department store in Knightsbridge, central London.

Omar Fayed said: “I am horrified and deeply concerned by the allegations recently brought to light against my late father.

“The extent and explicit nature of the allegations are shocking and has thrown into question, the loving memory I had of him.

“How this matter could have been concealed for so long and in so many ways, raises further disturbing questions.”

Omar also said that although he loved his father “very much” and he was a “wonderful dad, that aspect of our relationship… does not blind me from an objective assessment of circumstances”.

He said he stood “unequivocally in support of any legitimate investigation into these allegations”, adding: “The alleged victims and public deserve full transparency and accountability.”

Omar went on: “I will continue to support the principles of truth, justice, accountability, and fairness, regardless of where that journey may lead. No one is above the law.”

‘Dozens more survivors come forward’

A group of barristers representing the alleged victims has said there has been an “enormous” response to the investigation.

Justice for Harrods Survivors, headed by lawyers including Dean Armstrong KC, Bruce Drummond, Maria Mulla and Gloria Allred, said there are now “60 survivors” as part of the group’s claim against Harrods, “with more to come”.

The group also said “credible evidence” of abuse had emerged from those working at Fayed’s other businesses, including Fulham FC, which he owned between 1997 and 2013.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police confirmed on Thursday it was investigating a number of new allegations made against Fayed, on top of previous reports made by 19 separate women.

The force said it will carry out “full reviews of all existing allegations” of incidents said to have taken place between 1979 and 2013, to ensure there are “no new lines of inquiry based on new information which has emerged”.

Detectives added while it was not possible to bring criminal proceedings against someone who had died, the force would still “fully explore whether any other individuals could be pursued for any criminal offences”.

What happened about the original complaints?

The Met said the initial complaints made by 19 women were reported to them between 2005 and 2023, including three allegations of rape, 15 sexual assaults and one related to trafficking.

Police approached the Crown Prosecution Service five times, including two occasions where a file of evidence was passed on in 2009 and 2015.

No further action was taken against Fayed in respect of the original complaints.

The current Harrods managing director Michael Ward has said in a previous statement he was “not aware” of the “criminality and abuse” and described it as a “shameful period in the business’s history”.

Mr Ward apologised and said the business “failed our colleagues”.

A spokesperson for Fulham FC told Sky News: “We remain in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected by the reports concerning Mr Al Fayed.”

They added anyone with information could contact the club or police.

UK

‘I’m always going to be vulnerable’: Suicide rates are rising – especially among women

Published

9 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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'I'm always going to be vulnerable': Suicide rates are rising - especially among women

Emma Mills-Sheffield knows all too well the grief that suicide brings. Her sister Lou took her own life. And so too did their maternal grandmother. Emma’s father tried too.

“The cycle of grief was immense and deep,” she explains as we sit and talk in her Hove home.

“It’s not straightforward when someone takes their own life; the anger, the disbelief, the constant searching. There must have been evidence. There must have been something we could have done. There must have been a note. There must have been something.

“And then the anger around, weirdly, other people. People don’t know what to say or do.”

After years of decline, suicide rates are rising – especially among women.

In 2023 in England and Wales, they reached levels not seen since 1999. Some 6,069 suicides were registered in the two nations in 2023, up from 5,642 in 2022.

Suicide data is complex and can be quite hard to interpret.

The official figures have been disputed, with some experts saying they have been oversimplified. This is partly because suicides can take a while to be registered and show up in the official data.

But what can’t be disputed is that far too many people are taking their own lives.

This is a public health crisis that needs urgent intervention, according to suicide prevention charities, which are seeing a surge in the number of women seeking help.

‘Women are experiencing high levels of depression and anxiety’

Rachael Swann, CEO of Grassroots Suicide Prevention, a charity that helps people in crisis, says 70% of users of their Stay Alive mobile app, which connects people to support, are now women.

The rise in women taking their own lives is attributed to many factors, including menopause and perinatal depression, she says.

“As a midlife mum myself, I could really see the pressures,” she says.

“Women are really experiencing high levels of depression and anxiety, and there’s been a high level of domestic abuse following the pandemic.

“And then we’ve got that middle age group of 45 to 64-year-olds, who are the sandwich generation. So they might be juggling caring responsibilities, working and childcare. I’m in that space and there really is very little time and space for self-care.”

More attempts ‘than I have been able to count’, survivor says

Olivia-Louise Hamilton has been trying to take her own life since she was 12 years old.

She had a difficult childhood and battled for years with her poor mental health. She is 29 now and the dark winter months are challenging.

“There are more times than I have been able to count,” she explains about her attempts to take her own life.

“And they were quite different in the lead-up to it. Some of them were very, very impulsive, maybe in response to a certain trigger or because I’ve been sort of misusing alcohol, whereas others were a lot more premeditated, there was a lot more planning and that longer-term thought that went into them.”

‘I’m always going to be vulnerable’

Ms Hamilton is in a much better place now, but that does not mean her struggle is over. It is always there.

“I think I’d be lying if I said it isn’t something that’s on my mind. I think that I’m always going to be vulnerable to those sorts of thoughts just because of my history,” she says.

“But equally, the skills and the tools that I’ve learned over the years, I think really help me move forward with the hope that things might be different.

“I always think I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful enough that I won’t have a crisis. But I guess I’m not stupid enough to think that that won’t ever happen.”

Labour has promised to tackle suicide

The Labour government has promised to tackle suicide with the recruitment of over 8,000 new mental health staff specially trained to support people at risk of suicide.

In its 2024 manifesto, it said it would “deliver a renewed drive to tackle the biggest killers”, including suicide.

Ms Hamilton can tell when things are getting too much and how to reach for help. But tragically, it’s not the same for thousands of other women.

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.