The court refused to admit fresh psychiatric evidence in support of a possible defence of diminished responsibility to a charge of murder. Diminished responsibility had not been pursued at trial, the opinion of the psychiatrist originally instructed being adverse to such a defence, and it would not be in the interests of justice to allow the evidence to be adduced.
The Court stressed the importance of finality in proceedings and past decisions declining to allow an appellant to argue an issue already considered R. v Erskine (Kenneth) [2009] EWCA Crim 1425, [2010] 1 W.L.R. 183, [2009] 7 WLUK 361, R. v Evans (John Derek) [2009] EWCA Crim 2243, [2010] Crim. L.R. 491, [2009] 11 WLUK 50 and R. v Challen (Georgina Sarah) [2019] EWCA Crim 916, [2019] Crim. L.R. 980, [2019] 2 WLUK 736
In the particualr case the appellant would have in any event failed to establish the diminishment .