Regina v. Kingston

4 All E.R. 373, rev'd 3 All E.R. 353 (1994)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Kingston (D) was an admitted pedophile with homosexual tendencies. Kevin Penn arranged to blackmail D by photographing and audio-taping him in a compromising situation with a boy. Penn lured a boy of 15 to his flat where he gave the boy what seemed an innocuous drink and some cannabis. The boy fell asleep on the bed and remembered nothing until he woke the next morning. Penn invited D to come to his flat and after some conversation took him into the bedroom where he invited D to abuse the boy sexually. D was photographed and taped doing it. D claims he had no recollection of any other events that night and had woken in his own home the next morning. When D was arrested, two sedative drugs, diazepam (Valium) and triazolam, and an empty box which had contained a third type of sedative drug, were found in his flat. Penn had laced the boy's drink with such a drug. D was not sure if he had in fact been drugged as well. The tape itself contained a passage in which D said: 'I don't know why am I falling asleep?' and: 'Have you put something in my coffee?' Expert testimony established that diazepam would induce calm or drowsiness and that triazolam would induce sleep and could cause amnesia and impaired judgment. Neither medical witness suggested that either drug would make a person do anything which they would not do under normal circumstances. D contested the indecent assault count and was convicted by a majority of 10-2. D appealed against both conviction and sentence.