R v Choudhary (2015) – Mental Health Defence Leads to Full Acquittal

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Our client in his 30’s was charged with attempted murder and intentionally choke charges against his 10 year old daughter.

Leading up to this incident, our client who was feeling tired decided to have a day nap with his 10 year old daughter in her bedroom.

While his daughter was still asleep next to him, our client suddenly woke up in a state of a manic episode of schizophrenia. In that state, he was under a delusional belief with voices telling him to sacrifice his most loved possession.

He looked next to him and saw his daughter as being his most loved possession on earth before placing both of his hands around his daughter’s neck in an attempt to kill her.

His daughter struggled to resist when she awoke from this. When his wife heard the noises, she also rushed into the room before attempted to stop our client but was unable to overpower him.

Fortunately, our client had snapped out of the manic episode just in time. Quickly releasing his grip from her neck, he then rushed outside the house to get away from his daughter frightened of harming her again.

Upon police officers arriving at the scene, our client who was still disoriented coming out of his manic episode had said to police that “I tried to kill my daughter”, but still unable to comprehend what was going on.

Our Principal Jimmy Singh obtained our client’s existing medical reports before arranging and obtaining an updated psychiatrist report from a well-known and highly respected psychiatrist.

The new psychiatrist report revealed that our client who has a history of schizophrenia had recently changed the quantity dosage of his medication that was the likely cause of his manic episode.

It was his manic episode that he was labouring under at the time of the attack that caused him not to know what he was doing and so acted involuntarily. The change of dosage was brought about by a change of his treating psychiatrist.

We managed to ensure that the new psychiatrist report addressed the prospects of our client’s rehabilitation and risk of harm noting that our client, by the stage of his District Court trial, was stable and no longer a risk provided that he continues with complying with his treatment after his medication dosage was adjusted.

To this end, the defence psychiatrist was called to give evidence before the Penrith District Court.

Thanks to the meticulous preparation of this case, after two years of court appearances, the Judge accepted all of the expert evidence prepared by our Principal and our client was acquitted of all charges.

Our client was conditionally released upon discharge and was able to safely go back home to his family while continuing his treatment in the community with the Mental Health Review Tribunal.

Published on 04/09/2025