Legally " Defenceless " !

In the very long history of Rugby League football just eight players have been elevated to the rank of being called " Immortal ".  One of those is Graham Langlands.   He played 45 Tests for Australia, fifteen as captain.  He played two hundred games for the Dragons during 1963 and 1976 when St George had an eleven year winning streak.

Life after retirement was anything but placid.  He managed hotels in Taree and later in the Philippines and was featured in two biographies.   Old injuries came back to haunt him and he finally ended up in a Sutherland nursing home, suffering from Dementia. It is thought that mind altering disease is linked to the many head clashes he suffered playing the sport he loved.

Now a legal matter has emerged in the Brisbane Magistrates court.  Graham Langlands has been accused of indecently dealing with a child under sixteen on the Gold Coast between  March 25 and June 30 of 1982.   The Langland family report that this will be defended.

That opens an interesting area of conjecture in legal circles.  A person whose mind has been destroyed by Dementia is not capable of instructing lawyers or giving evidence in his own defence. Yet this is a serious charge and the Department of Public Prosecutions will certainly attract criticism if they do not proceed with the case.

Then there is the issue of penalties.   Should this case result in a guilty verdict it is improbable that a man suffering Dementia would be sentenced to serve time in the general prison population.  He would need to be defended against the victimization that exists in such institutions and the only option would be incarceration in the prison hospital.

It also raises the question of what would be the gain.  The twin aims of a prison sentence is to deliver punishment and achieve rehabilitation  to prevent future criminal acts.  A person with Dementia who has no memory of why he is in prison is totally incapable of any form of rehabilitation.

This charge also poses a problem for the grandees of Rugby League.  Had this charge arisen before his elevation to " Immortal " status it is unlikely that this distinction would have been approved.  There was a degree of doubt when another player was so nominated because he had been involved in suspected drug use and Immortals required a squeaky clean image.   There is a possibility that a guilty verdict may see this honour withdrawn.

We are all living longer - and Dementia is a fast  increasing disease in the general population.  It seems likely that defence lawyers will seek to have this disability allowed as a legal defence against any form of prosecution.  Of course, Dementia comes in many degrees and usually advances over time, but in its extreme form most memory is totally extinguished.

It may take the case of such a public figure to get a determination of whether Dementia is a valid defence against prosecution.