South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts (1) In this
Part—
"authorised person" means a person authorised by the Minister to exercise the
powers of an authorised person under this Part;
"defence"—a defence exists if, even though the objective elements of an
offence are found to exist, the defendant is entitled to the benefit of an
exclusion, limitation or reduction of criminal liability at common law or by
statute;
"defensible"—a defendant's conduct is to be regarded as defensible in
proceedings under this Part if, on the trial of the offence to which the
proceedings relate, a defence might be found to exist;
"intoxication" means a temporary disorder, abnormality or impairment of the
mind that results from the consumption or administration of intoxicants and
will pass on metabolism or elimination of intoxicants from the body;
"judge" includes magistrate;
"mental illness" means a pathological infirmity of the mind (including a
temporary one of short duration) 1 ;
"mental impairment" includes—
(a) a
mental illness; or
(b) an
intellectual disability; or
(c) a
disability or impairment of the mind resulting from senility,
but does not include intoxication;
"Minister" means the Minister responsible for the administration of the Mental
Health Act 1993 ;
"next of kin" of a person means a person's spouse, domestic partner, parents
and children;
"objective element" of an offence means an element of an offence that is not a
subjective element;
"psychiatrist" means a person registered under the Medical Practitioners
Act 1983 as a specialist in psychiatry;
"subjective element" of an offence means voluntariness, intention, knowledge
or some other mental state that is an element of the offence;
"supervision order" — see section 269O;
"victim", in relation to an offence or conduct that would, but for the
perpetrator's mental impairment, have constituted an offence, means a person
who suffered significant mental or physical injury as a direct consequence of
the offence or the conduct.
(2) For the purposes
of this Part—
(a) the
question whether a person was mentally competent to commit an offence is a
question of fact;
(b) the
question whether a person is mentally unfit to stand trial on a charge of an
offence is a question of fact.
Note—
1 A condition that results from the reaction of a
healthy mind to extraordinary external stimuli is not a mental illness,
although such a condition may be evidence of mental illness if it involves
some abnormality and is prone to recur (see R v Falconer (1990) 171 CLR 30).