People suffering from drug-induced amnesia can do things they would not usually do, an expert witness told the High Court at Wellington yesterday.
Clinical pharmacology expert Carl Burgess was replying to a question in the drug-rape trial of Wellington IT consultant Glenn William Hooker.
The prosecution alleges that Hooker, aged 30, slipped the sedative clonazepam into a 35-year-old woman's drinks, took her to his flat and had sex with her.
Hooker denies the charge, and says the sex was consensual.
The woman says she lost her memory for about seven hours, before waking up feeling disoriented and unable to remember having sex.
Dr Burgess said he knew of cases where people in a state of drug-induced amnesia did things they had never done before and then could not remember the events afterwards.
Asked by the defence if this could apply to sexual acts, Dr Burgess said it depended on whether the acts differed from how they usually had sex. He believed the woman had suffered an episode of anterograde amnesia, from the effects of clonazepam and alcohol.
He said her symptoms - including initial euphoria, loss of inhibitions and a sudden feeling of drowsiness followed by a period of amnesia - were consistent with clonazepam.
The jury asked if the complainant was capable of saying no to an action, when suffering from amnesia and whether her amnesia made her compliant or if her normal inhibitions stood.
Dr Burgess said he knew of cases where people had taken drugs from the same family as clonazepam and appeared to be behaving in a normal fashion, but did things they had never done before.
Dr Burgess said he could not say whether they were then responsible for their actions, because he was not a psychiatrist.
Justice Eddie Durie asked Dr Burgess if it was possible the complainant had made a rational decision during the alleged amnesia period. Dr Burgess said it was possible, but unlikely.
- NZPA
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