B.C. man acquitted of attack that ‘terrorized’ woman on basis of drug-induced ‘automatism’

A B.C. man who admitted to attacking a woman was found not guilty after a judge ruled he was in a state of psychosis brought on by magic mushrooms.

Warning: This story contains details readers may find disturbing.

A B.C. man who admitted to attacking and sexually assaulting a woman before stabbing himself in the chest was acquitted of all charges, with the court ruling he “acted involuntarily” after taking magic mushrooms.

Leon-Jamal Barrett was charged with sexual assault and other offences in an attack that left a woman he had never met before “horrified and traumatized” in the early hours of March 9, 2019, according to a decision finding the accused not guilty on the grounds of non-mental disorder automatism.

“Mr. Barrett will not face a conviction in this matter, but he will live with the knowledge that he made a choice that resulted in temporarily losing his mind and committing an appalling series of acts against a stranger. The scar that he bears will be a constant reminder of these actions,” Judge Timothy Hinkson wrote in his decision.

The ruling was handed down in Surrey provincial court in March and posted online earlier this month.

“This case is unusual,” Hinkson’s decision began.

“There is no doubt as to whether or not Mr. Barrett did what he is accused of.”

The defence of non-mental disorder automatism is rarely invoked and highly controversial. It amounts to an argument that someone who does not have an underlying mental illness acted involuntarily and is not responsible for their actions – which the judge notes is counter to the general legal presumption that people “act voluntarily.”

A ‘highly unusual’ case

Unlike in cases where someone is found not criminally responsible “due to mental disease or defect,” when this defence succeeds the accused is acquitted – and the court can not order detention in a psychiatric facility.

In this case, the judge accepted that Barrett was in an “acutely psychotic state” after smoking cannabis and ingesting magic mushrooms.

“While what he describes may be shocking and hard for almost anyone to comprehend, there is no evidence contradicting his version,” Hinkson wrote.

“He was hallucinating and delusional and those psychotic symptoms drove his behaviour,” the judge continued, summarizing what the court heard from an expert who also described the case as “highly unusual.”

Barrett told the court about a “complex hallucination” that began roughly an hour after he took the mushrooms and involved a demand to “sacrifice himself to save humanity.” Part of the delusion involved needing to find a woman in order to fulfill a command from God.

“God would sacrifice both of them during an act of sexual congress in order to save humanity. He waited at his house for this woman to come,” the decision said.

“When she did not, he left his home, believing that if he walked anywhere, God would eventually bring them together.”

The attack on the woman

Once he was out on the street, he saw a woman behind the wheel of a car and “assumed she was the chosen woman,” according to the decision. Barrett started to follow her, and she ran away from him toward her home but he climbed the gate and managed to grab her and pull her to the ground, the decision said.

“He started to lick her and kiss her neck. He ‘smashed’ her left breast. He was pulling at her pants, she felt, in an effort to remove them. When he tried to kiss her, she repeatedly poked at his face with her key. When he put his tongue in her mouth, she bit his tongue as hard as she could,” the court heard.

Barrett got up and started to undress, and the woman took the opportunity to run again but Barrett pushed her down concrete stairs.

“There was a great struggle on the floor. (The victim’s) wrist was injured. She was screaming, trying to push Mr. Barrett away. Mr. Barrett was on top of (the woman), still naked, with his hands at the side of her jeans, pulling at them again,” the decision said.

Ultimately, the victim was able to get inside and lock a door behind her. Her screams woke up her landlord’s kids, and a neighbour called 911.

Reasons for acquittal

Barrett, meanwhile, went home where the delusion continued, according to the decision.

“He believed he could not die from the passage of time and that the police, who had also been corrupted, were going to lock him in a cell for the rest of time. He resolved to go home and take his own life so that another version of himself could be reborn and reincarnated and then maybe they could save the world,” Hinkson wrote.

Barrett then stabbed himself in the chest before leaving again to seek out the “actual woman” he believed God needed him to find, the judge wrote. Police apprehended him on the street after a chase, and the testimony of the arresting officers was that Barrett seemed to have “superhuman strength” and acted like he was impervious to pain. He was also described by police as in a state of “extreme agitation” and “not really conscious or aware of his environment and people around him.”

In order to acquit on the grounds of non-mental disorder automatism, Hinkson explained that a judge needs to be satisfied there is “evidence upon which a properly instructed jury could find that the accused acted involuntarily on a balance of probabilities.” That burden was met in this case, the judge ruled.

Next, an underlying mental illness or disorder needs to be ruled out.

“I am satisfied that the automatism was not caused by a mental disorder. Furthermore, it was caused by an external cause, being the ingestion of magic mushrooms ‘boosted’ by the use of cannabis,” Hinkson wrote.

‘Erosion of trust in the legal system’

Angela Marie MacDougall, executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services Society, said she wasn’t surprised by the ruling, but is concerned about the message it sends.

“We’re at this point where the general public is very aware that the criminal legal system is not helpful for sexual assault victims or domestic violence victims,” MacDougall told CTV News.

“There’s an incredible erosion of trust in the legal system both in terms of policing but also the courts – and this case is another example of that.”

MacDougall says it’s another example of why sexual assault victims overwhelmingly choose not to engage with the criminal justice system.

“Anybody that wants to do harm can easily see that there are plenty of loopholes and it is unlikely that you would be held accountable,” she said.

MacDougall says she will continue to advocate for victims of sexual assault who do choose to report the crimes to police despite the “discouraging” outcome in this case and so many others.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Yasmin Gandham