SA attorney-general looks to remove self-intoxication as criminal defence

South Australia’s attorney-general has called for urgent law reform after a man was sentenced to 11 years behind bars for killing his partner while under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug.

Kyam Maher announced on Friday that the government has already started drafting laws seeking to close “a gap” allowing the interaction of self-induced intoxication laws and excessive force laws to be used as a partial defence in court.

“This interaction of these two aspects of the law, self-induced intoxication and excessive force in self-defence, as a partial defence, is exceptionally rare but we don’t want to see another family go through what Synamin Bell’s family has had to go through,” he said.

Ms Bell was killed by her partner Cody James Edwards in 2022 after the pair had taken the hallucinogenic drug DOI — with Edwards experiencing paranoid psychosis and beating his partner with a metal dumbbell across the head before stabbing her in the back after she died.

Edwards originally pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, citing drug-induced psychosis as a defence.

But, halfway through his trial earlier this year, Edwards entered a guilty plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Under Part 8 of the Criminal Consolidation Act 1935, current laws provide an intoxication defence in certain circumstances.

The act states a defence can be based on whether a defendant’s consciousness was “impaired to the point of criminal irresponsibility at the time of the offence”.

However, it also states that “intoxication is generally not a defence when the intoxication is self-induced”.

It also states intoxication cannot be used as a defence if there was the intention to commit the crime before the defendant became intoxicated.

On Friday, Edwards was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of eight years and 10 months.

The sentence was backdated to when Edwards was first taken into custody on March 12, 2022.

Fight not over for Synamin Bell’s family

Family members and friends of Ms Bell said they would continue to fight for justice and said the sentence handed to Edwards set a poor precedent for perpetrators of domestic violence.

Ms Bell’s sister, Shenta Bell, said she wanted to see urgent law reforms.

“[We want] different outcomes so drugs can’t be used as an excuse to kill someone and walk away from it,” she said.

“He’s a drug addict, and he’s admitted that, and he’s admitted everything.

“It’s laughable though, isn’t it, you try not to laugh in there [court] because the fact they’re using the things they do as excuses is a joke.

“It’s a spit in her face, it’s a spit in the face of her children … [it’s like] her life means nothing.”

Mr Maher said he understood the family’s anger and said the government was looking to change the relevant law as soon as possible.

“I don’t think [the sentence] meets community expectations, the court has applied the law as it stands, we think there’s a gap in the law. We are going to look to change that,” he said.

“They’ve [the Bell family] not only lost a cherished member of their family but have had to deal with the trauma of the killer pleading guilty to a lesser charge because of the way the law stands today.

“This case has highlighted a need to address how the laws of self-induced intoxication and the laws of excessive self-defence interact with each other.”

Police commissioner weighs in on fatal DV being classed as manslaughter

On Friday morning, South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens was questioned about murder charges being downgraded to manslaughter in the case of fatal domestic violence.

“There are lots of examples where people are charged with murder — and convicted and found guilty of the offence of murder — but the circumstances in each case need to be determined by the District Court, the Supreme Court,” he said.

“There’ll be decisions made by the prosecuting authority in relation to what they are most likely to be successful on, in terms of prosecuting a matter, so there are variables that people outside of that process probably don’t appreciate.

“But having said that, people need to be held accountable for the horrific actions that happen in a domestic violence situation.”

Mr Maher said the government would begin consultation on the draft laws as soon as next week.