James Wilson reports on the strange case of Daniel M’Naghten
To date the only british prime minister to have been assassinated is the unfortunate Sir Spencer Perceval (1762-1812), and his place as a regular answer in pub quizzes across the land is thereby assured. No doubt there have been many other attempts, and indeed the total number of failed attempts can never be known.
One alleged attempt forms the background to one of the most famous cases in English legal history, that of Daniel M’Naghten. It has framed the legal test for insanity for over a century and a half. Every lawyer will have heard of the case and most will associate it with that test (see Jeremy Dein QC and Jo Sidhu, “Legal Insanity” in Cases that Changed Our Lives, LexisNexis 2010).
Not so many, however, would know that the factual background involves a rather intriguing conspiracy theory.
Background
For most of his life, in the early to mid-nineteenth century, M’Naghten lived largely anonymously as a wood-turner, although he had a few other interests. Among other
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