Danger of Sleep Walking
By Blue Rose on Tuesday, 13 of July , 2010 at 3:33 pm
Are you a sleep walker? Then wake up before you could do anything bad that you never expect will happen.
This is a true Story.
The memories are still clear, especially when the night comes, never had peacefull sleep since it happens five years ago.
It was middle of the night, Sarah(not real name) and her daughter fall asleep in her daughter’s room. The party was over and one of her husbands friend fall asleep in thier sofa, never expecting that it will happen, Danny(not real name) suddenly walk up stairs and went to her daughter’s room naked and start to have sex with her, thinking it was her husband, she tought what is he doing? Shocked and surprised registered in his mind and body when she realize it’s not his husband, she felt the force of his body while trying to have sex with her. She tried to push him and screamed, when the police arrived they found him still asleep as if nothing had happened. They took him away and left Sarah totally traumatised.
Year later, Sarah saw him again in court, he pleade not guilty in account for rape, reason? According to Danny’s, he had been asleep so had no idea what he was doing. Despite having no medical history of sleepwalking, the jury was unable to decide ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, so he escaped conviction.
This case is never an end, In the last five years, there’s been an upsurge of incidents where sleepwalking – a form of automatism that leads to unconscious behaviour – has been used as a criminal defense.
Year 2008, Harry kissed an under-age girl in her room while sleepwalking, he claimed that sleepwalking ran in his family and he was asleep at that time.
Previous year, Ralf 26 and Dennis 21, was acquitted from rape case, pleaded not guilty, as they are both sleeping when the rape of under-age girls happens. Smart ways huh! It is very hard to prove which sleepwalkers are genuine.
It is estimated that eight percent of sleepwalker are children, but that falls to less than one percent to adulthood, with the majority of sufferers being male. Sleepwalking occurs when a person is joltedawake, but areas of the brain that control thinking, planning and memory remain asleep. Family history, genetics and sleep deprivation all plays a substantial part.
A tragedy occured in july 2008 during a holiday. After being disturbed by boy racers, Edward dreamed that an intruder had broken in, but instead of fighting a burglar, he trottled his wife to death. When he woke up and realized what he’d done, he called 999 to confess. He spent ten months on prison, but after medical records proved that it was a sleep disorder, the case was dropped and Edward was found simply ‘not guilty’.
With a condition like this, the simple truth is that nobody ever truly knows. There are people who have the disorder, commit a crime and try to lean back on it to get away with it. One thing is certain, with the number of sleepwalking defence claims increasing all the time, it’s an issue that will remain.
What the law says
In English law – only people who have made a conscious decision to commit a crime can be punished. Sleepwalking is therefore often used as defence as its hard to prove and removes all responsibility.
