Autism Defense Again

Post Reply New Topic

A woman who used a sex toy in front of a girl and molested a second child was today spared jail.

Julie Grierson, 46, sexually abused two girls, leaving one suffering from depression.


But she received a suspended sentence after a court heard she has Asperger’s Syndrome and “severe difficulties”.

Grierson, of Fincham Road, Huyton, admitted sexual assault, sexual activity with a child and engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

Liverpool Crown Court heard she put Vaseline on the first girl’s private parts, which made her victim feel “uncomfortable and embarrassed”.

On another occasion she got “tipsy” and kissed the girl on the lips, continuing to do so until other people asked her to stop.

David Watson, prosecuting, said: “She admitted she had become aroused by the activity. She accepted she knew the incident was wrong.”

The court heard she exposed her breasts while using a webcam on an internet dating site and used a sex toy in front of the second child.

“This woman has significant difficulties in her functioning and her intellectual ability and has been diagnosed with Asperger’s and depression.”

Judge Smith said she could have handed Grierson a maximum of seven years behind bars for the sexual assault.

However, she said: “This defendant has a number of profound defects in her psychological functioning, which are combined with various personality facets and depression.”

Judge Smith said a doctor found Grierson was a “significantly vulnerable individual” and she had been urged to find a better outcome for her and the public than prison.

She handed her two years in jail, suspended for two years, plus 18 months of supervision, which she said “meets the interests of the defendant and the public”.

Judge Smith told Grierson to sign on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Over the next 19 years, Alec Chattin will pose a unique challenge to the clinicians at the maximum security Whiting Forensic Division. The 20-year-old from Ledyard was committed to the psychiatric security review board following his acquittal by reason of insanity in a knife attack on his mother.

Chattin has high-functioning autism, also referred to Asperger's syndrome. It is a developmental disability, rather than a psychiatric disease or defect, and it is unusual, two experts said, that someone with a primary diagnosis of autism would be a candidate for an insanity defense.

"It's rare to see an insanity defense based on a developmental or intellectual disability," said Dr. Alexander Westphal, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a consulting forensic psychiatrist for the state, though not in the Chattin case.

Westphal added, however, that the hallmarks of high-functioning autism — social disability, rigidity of thought, an inability to pick up on social cues, subtexts, and norms, and repetitive patterns of behavior — "do line up with the two prongs" of Connecticut's insanity statute: an inability to discern right from wrong at the time of the offense, and an inability to conform or control one's conduct to the requirements of the law.

Westphal said autism doesn't preclude an insanity defense.

"It can be very appropriate to use an insanity defense in cases which involve autism," Westphal said.

This was a case of unusual complexity.

"We struggled with it, too," said Chattin's criminal defense lawyer, public defender Kevin Barrs. "Even our doctors couldn't really pinpoint" the driving force behind Chattin's attack on his mother, Brenda, who is recovering from her serious injuries.

When Barrs proposed an insanity defense, the prosecution did not oppose the decision.

In the end, said Barrs, a combination of factors was present, including a major depressive disorder. Forensic psychologist Leslie Lothstein testified that Chattin was in the grip of a psychotic break when he tried to shoot, and then stabbed his mother.

It was enough for Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein who, in November 2016, found Chattin not guilty of two counts of felony assault by reason of mental disease or defect. The judge committed Chattin to Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown for 19 years.

It is, said Dr. Harold Schwartz, chief of psychiatry at the Institute of Living in Hartford, an "extremely rare" case for CVH. Here is an autistic man, acquitted of a violent crime by reason of insanity, with little or no remaining traces of psychosis.

"I don't know of any other case quite like this," said Schwartz, vice present of behavioral health at Hartford Hospital.

"The diagnosis now may not be the same diagnosis that Dr. Lothstein testified to at trial," Schwartz said. "There are brief psychotic episodes. There is psychotic depression. The diagnosis at trial must have resolved itself.

"Now the question is: What is [Chattin] left with that will be treatable during his 19 years at Whiting? That is a very good question."

A mother accused of murdering her newborn daughter suffered an "acute stress reaction" after giving birth, a psychiatrist has told a jury.
Rachel Tunstill, 26, accepts she stabbed Mia Kelly to death with a pair of scissors in the bathroom of her home in Burnley, Lancashire, but says she cannot remember doing it.
Dr Fareed Bashir told Preston Crown Court Ms Tunstill's balance of mind was disturbed.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Bashir, acting for the defence, said her reaction following the birth came against a background of mental disorder, including depression and her condition of Asperger's syndrome diagnosed when she was a child.
Dr Bashir said he could not establish exactly what was going through her mind but said: "Giving birth to a child in a bathroom, in a toilet, was extremely stressful.
"Her brain should have told her that 'this is a child and I should care for the child' but because she had Asperger's and other disorders, her emotions would not have fitted with what her brain had told her.
"There would have been a clash of confusion in her mind as to what to do. That may be an explanation."

A former Penn State student charged with possession of child pornography was sentenced to probation Tuesday.

Ian Z. Shulman, 23, was a student when he was charged with 53 felony counts of possession of child pornography in 2013, according to court documents. He was charged through the state Office of Attorney General after an investigation that started in January of that year.

He pleaded guilty to one count of criminal use of a communication facility and one count of dissemination of explicit sexual material in March 2017, documents said. A psychiatric report included in the documents indicated that Shulman “was not a pedophile and his risk of another sexual crime was remote to a reasonable degree of medical certainty.”

The report also states that based on the diagnosis that he “suffers Asperger’s syndrome and his immaturity, he would be at risk in a prison environment ... with individuals more physically powerful and more socially adept than himself and could be easily victimized.”

Shulman’s attorney, Joseph Amendola, said at the sentencing that his client was a unique case, and given his lack of criminal history, probation would be an appropriate sentence. A representative of the attorney general’s office agreed.

A judge has kept a 24-year-old child abuse pornography offender out of prison after learning of his struggles with Asperger's syndrome.

Instead, Vincenzo Tyrone Wiremu will be under intensive supervision for two years, with no access to the internet – where he had traded images on the "dark web" for years.

The images ranged from toddlers to prepubescent boys and girls, sometimes posing or being subjected to sexual abuse including when gagged, tied or restrained.

Wiremu admitted 41 charges brought by Internal Affairs, of making, possessing or distributing objectionable material.

His offending was identified through a United States connection. It was referred to Internal Affairs in New Zealand, which executed a search warrant in April 2016.

Wiremu admitted using a "drop box" system where people could access the files. He voluntarily provided access to emails and other accounts he used. That included setting up a Facebook page called "young love" in which to place images.

Internal Affairs prosecutor Marty Robinson said the department was concerned about the large number of people – more than 100 – who accessed the distributed material and by the extreme nature of the abuse. The department called for a starting point of six years' jail, before other factors were considered.

Defence counsel Paul Johnson said that, after taking responsibility for the offending, Wiremu still had a significant amount of support from his family and employers, who were prepared to keep him on.

Judge Farish said the sentence she imposed was not her being "soft" on Wiremu, nor precedent-setting. She did not want to set a sentence that would "lose sight of rehabilitation".

She did not see him as a risk of causing serious harm, but he was a risk in terms of accessing computer systems. He had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, but he had achieved relatively well and had a full time job where he was well regarded.

She told Wiremu: "Every image you viewed was of a person committing a crime against a young person. It caused long term physical and mental harm. It caused ongoing anguish."

She had read victim impact statements from people who were abused as children for online pornography and found they "re-abused" as adults because people continued to watch it.

"Social media have an obligation to remove or report images that are clearly objectionable," she said.

She had a report from a clinical psychologist who said Wiremu's Asperger's restricted his social skills and blocked access to same-age partners for social and sexual development. On his own, he discovered the available pornography online.

His condition led to poor social and communications skills, an inability so far to maintain any long-term relationships, negative emotions from experiencing social rejection and restricted problem-solving skills.

Special needs should be considered for sentencing, including the "delicate, fragile social connections" for a person with Asperger's.

Judge Farish said she accepted there was a diminished culpability because of Wiremu's Asperger's.

She saw a prison term as being counter-productive for Wiremu and for society. She said home detention would undermine the rehabilitative purpose of sentencing.

In what she termed an "unusual case", she sentenced Wiremu to two years of intensive supervision.

During this time he must specialist counselling, not possess internet-capable devices without approval and live at an approved address.

He could not have contact with children aged under 16 without an approved adult present, until the issue was considered by the psychologist.

The judge did not order his registration as a child sex offender, because she said the "negative and restrictive nature of the Act" would compromise his treatment, and end his employment.

Judge Farish warned him that any breaches of the sentence would mean sending him to jail.

A deaf, autistic and intellectually challenged young woman who murdered a man by pushing him off a Melbourne balcony might avoid prison because of her "unusual" mix of conditions.
Georgia Fields, 21, was one of three deaf people found to have murdered 36-year-old Robert Wright who died in hospital after plunging from a Ringwood balcony in January 2015.
She faced the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday where Justice Jane Dixon said she presented a "very unusual" and difficult case when considering custody options.

Attorney: Simpsonville teen accused of killing mom is autistic



If you asked me a few months ago I would have argued that the Autism Defense was an non issue but lately I have read about a number of such cases.

Heer’s solicitor Fazaila Kauser explained that he suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and there was an issue over his fitness to enter a plea.

Kirklees magistrates adjourned the case until September 1 to allow him to be assessed by medical experts.

In the meantime Heer must live and sleep at his given address.

He was banned from going to a public place unless accompanied by probation staff or a family member.

Now this lawyer is trying to say that we Aspies, whose ranks include giants in the sciences and arts such as Einstein, Kafka, and Lovecraft

I fully understand defending one's client, but this could hurt us collectively in the long run, even more than the Aspie flasher might.