A woman has been cleared by the court after she was accused of trying to smother her mother with a pillow as she slept. Donna Sheppard- Saunders denied trying to murder Pamela Sheppard in the bedroom they shared in Sussex. The trial was heard in Lewes Crown Court, where the court was told that Ms Sheppard-Saunders put a pillow over her mother’s head while she was sleepwalking.
Jurors were told that Ms Sheppard-Saunders has a history of sleepwalking as a side-effect of the leukaemia treatment she received as a child, and had no recollection of what she had done.
This is a quite bizarre situation. The judge directed the jury that there was no intent to kill by Ms Sheppard-Saunders as she was not aware of what she was doing at the time of the incident and said the first thing she could remember was her mother shouting and slapping her, and so the accused was found not guilty of attempted murder.
It would be difficult to hold the accused responsible because if she was sleepwalking then clearly she would not have been consciously aware of the act that she was committing.
A prolonged period of time without oxygen could well have resulted in Ms Sheppard suffering asphyxia, which could have led to, amongst other things, brain damage or a heart attack and/or have caused her death. Fortunately, Ms Sheppard was awoken by the feel of the pillow on her face and was able to push Ms Sheppard-Saunders away from her after 30 seconds.