Darren Greenwood, who appeared on 'This Morning' today, walked out of court free last week, after a jury accepted his defence of the rare medical condition, sexsomnia.'Sexsomnia is a form of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnia (similar to sleepwalking) that causes people to engage in sexual acts such as masturbation, fondling, sexual intercourse and sexual assault or rape while they are asleep'. It is thought to affect up to 1% of the population worldwide. Drink, drugs, sleep deprivation and stress are all thought to make the condition worse.
Darren, from East London had only just met the 21-year-old when she stayed the night at his house. She awoke to find him touching her. Darren held that he was 'oblivious' to this.
The verdict meant that Darren had no control over his 'sexual' actions and or had any knowledge of groping the girl, as she slept.
Although both a medical expert and the prosecution's expert agreed with this diagnosis, Darren warned real sex attackers not to claim this defence as sexsomnia; 'You will get found out. You cannot just make this up.'
It has been 14 years since the first research paper was published in 1996, by three researchers from the University of Toronto. It suggested sexual behaviour during sleep may be a new type of parasomnia. Since this groundbreaking study, more and more research has been released detailing the condition. However, in order for this to of been helpful, yet accurate, the judiciary and need to be vigilant and prevent the possibility of the floodgates argument persevering and eradicating the credibility of such a new and specialist decision.
This is incredible! Like he said, you genuinely cant make some of this stuff up. I did hear something about this earlier, and about how there is a condition (or another effect of this condition) where its almost like narcolepsy, and it forces someone to grope the nearest person when they're under high emotional stress or other hightened states of emotion. Interesting stuff!
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