Simon Birch killing: Adam Jenkins' memory fail could be medical

A man's failure to remember the moment he fatally injured a Christmas party guest could be medical, a court has heard

Simon Birch, 39, was fatally wounded in the neck at the home of Adam Jenkins in Newbottle, Sunderland, at about 23:20 GMT on 25 December 2021.

At Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Jenkins, 36, has denied murder and manslaughter.

He said he could not recall slashing Mr Birch but prosecutors accused him of lying about partial memory loss.

The court has heard that Mr Birch had been in a relationship with Mr Jenkins' sister Emma for two-and-a-half years and that there had been multiple incidents of domestic abuse and violence.

At the end of Christmas Day, Mr Jenkins attacked Mr Birch in the driveway after believing the victim had killed Ms Jenkins in a domestic violence attack.

Mr Jenkins repeatedly said he could not remember taking a knife from the kitchen or stabbing Mr Birch in the neck.

Prosecutor Francis Fitzgibbon KC said the claim of partial memory loss was a "lie" so the defendant could "avoid having to give truthful answers" about what happened, but Mr Jenkins said he "totally" disagreed and he had been "severely traumatised" by the incident.

Dr Frank Farnham, a consultant forensic psychiatrist appointed by Mr Jenkins' legal team, said he believed the defendant had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the killing, a symptom of which includes problems with "processing traumatic memories".

Dr Farnham said Mr Jenkins had had "flashbacks" where he felt like Mr Birch was lying on top of him so he "couldn't breathe", adding he would hear Mr Birch shouting in his "confusing" dreams and would wake in a sweat every night.

He said the defendant had said his "mind plays games where [he] thinks there was a happy outcome" to the Christmas Day confrontation and would have further flashbacks of "having a cuddle and shaking hands with [Mr Birch]".

Dr Farnham said Mr Jenkins claimed his memory had been heavily affected by the killing with the events "not sinking in", adding the defendant said he had previously had a "brilliant memory" but since Christmas Day had had to "write everything down".

Dr Farnham said he had also concluded Mr Jenkins had "experienced significant emotional abuse in childhood" because of offending by his maternal grandfather, which included seeing the older man physically assault Mr Jenkins' father on a number of occasions.

He said Mr Jenkins first developed depression and anxiety at the age of 19 but he would use "work as a kind of therapy".

Mr Jenkins also drank heavily and used cocaine for six months after his mental health spiralled in about 2013 when he found out more about his grandfather's historical offending, the court heard.

Dr Farnham said he believed at the time of the incident Mr Jenkins had a "recurrent depressive disorder" and an "acute stress reaction" which would include feeling "dazed, agitated and some degree of confusion".

He said Mr Jenkins had signs of PSTD from the childhood trauma such as anxiety, hyper-vigilance and a "tendency to avoid people and conflict" but not enough to "meet the full diagnostic criteria of PTSD" at the time of the killing.

Dr Farnham said the various issues Mr Jenkins had were relevant when determining the defendant's ability to assess the risk posed by Mr Birch.

He said people with depression could "catastrophise" or "assume things are much worse than they", be "overly alert or on guard" and be poor at solving problems "especially when under stress".

Dr Farnham said Mr Jenkins' account was "consistent" with those reactions, including the fight or flight response which a person does not have "conscious control" over, and that was "relevant to his ability to asses risk and/or fully remember the incident".

He said Mr Jenkins' description of feeling "panic", "time going slowly" and things not having a "feeling to reality of them" were all consistent with acute stress reaction and memory loss was a "key feature" of such diagnoses along with an "over-reaction to risk".

Dr Farnham said Mr Jenkins' "childhood trauma and abuse" had made him less "resilient" against such automatic reactions and would "possibly increase the severity of such a reaction".

Dr Farnham also said there was a "potential scientific explanation" for Mr Jenkins being unaware he had a knife in his hand.

The trial continues.

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