The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913 : together with the regulations and rules made under the provisions of that Act, the departmental circulars, the Elementary (Defectice and Epileptic Children) Acts, 1899 and 1914, and, introduction and annotations / by R.A. Leach.
- Date:
- 1914
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913 : together with the regulations and rules made under the provisions of that Act, the departmental circulars, the Elementary (Defectice and Epileptic Children) Acts, 1899 and 1914, and, introduction and annotations / by R.A. Leach. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![or other person who presented the original petition ana to the parent or guardian of the defective, an opportunity of being heard. PROCEDXniE IN CASES OP PERSONS GUILTY OF OFFENCES, ETC. 8.—(1) On the conviction by a court of competent jurisdiction of any person of any criminal offence punishable in the case of an adult with penal servitude or imprisonment, or on a child brought before a court under section fifty-eight of thie Children Act, 1908 [8 Edw. 7, c. 57], being found liable to be sent to an industrial school, the court, if satisfied on medical evidence that he is a defective within the meaning of this Act, may either— (a) postpone passing sentence or making an order for committal to an industrial school, and direct that a petition be presented to a judicial authority under this Act with a view to obtaining an order that he be sent to an institu- tion or placed under guardianship; or (b) in lieu of passing sentence or making an order for com- mittal to an industrial school, itself make any order which if a petition had been duly presented under this Act the judicial authority might have made, which order shall have the like effect as if it had been made by a judicial authority on a petition under this Act: Provided that, if the court is a court of summary jurisdiction and the case is one which the court has power to deal with summarily, the court, if it tinds that the charge is proved, may give such directions or make such order as aforesaid without proceeding to a conviction, and such a person shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be a person found guilty of an offence. (2) The court may act either on the evidence given during the of persons, corporate or incorporate (Interpretation Act, 1889. section 19), t.g., Board of Guardians. Notes to Section 8. (1) Any criminal offence punishable, etc., that is, excluding capital offences. The Bill of 1912 read for “ any offence other than homicide.” On the third reading of the present measure its opponents sought to obtain the inclusion of a new clause to secure that the sentence of death should not be passed on a mental defective, that is, that the court should cider a defective found guilty of murder to be detained, as a murderer found insane, during His Majesty’s pleasure. The Home Secretary, in opposing the proposed new clause, said : “The Royal Commission and the whole body of the judges have recommended that no such verdict (as guilty but mentally defective) should be given. In a trial for murder the whole body of the evidence will be directed to the question whether the prisoner is guilty or not. When the question comes up before the Home Secretary, he will be able to inquire into the circumstances of the case, quite apart from the question of guilty or not-guilty.” If satisfied on medical evidence.—Under sub-section 5, it is the duty of the police to bring such evidence as to the mental condition of an apparent](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29010172_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
