SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE FROM AN ACA ANEUR YSM IN A SEXUAL OFFENDER - SOME THOUGHTS ON LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY

A 32-year-old man was accused of attempted rape. While urinating at th e side of the road he felt an erection, He approached a 9-year-old gir l who happened to be coming along and pressed his penis between her le gs until ejaculation. Shortly afterwards he was arrested. He confessed , but claimed partial amnesia and had no explanation for the offence, which he normally would never have thought of. Shortly before the even t a witness had seen him nearby in a poor state of orientation. Three months later in prison he suffered massive subarachnoidal hemorrhage f rom an aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery, The evaluation o f his legal responsibility must take account of a putative psychomotor seizure at the time of the offence. With regard to the aneurysm diagn osed later, a pathogenetic connection, in terms of a preceding warning leak, might be assumed.