FINDLAY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM 22107/93

The European Court of Human Rights, sitting, in accordance with Article 43 (art. 43) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") and the relevant provisions of Rules of Court A (2), as a Chamber composed of the following judges:

The Commission's request referred to Articles 44 and 48 (art. 44, art. 48) and to the declaration whereby the United Kingdom recognised the compulsory jurisdiction of the Court (Article 46) (art. 46). The object of the request was to obtain a decision as to whether the facts of the case disclosed a breach by the respondent State of its obligations under Article 6 para. 1 of the Convention (art. 6-1).

On 29 August 1996 the President decided to admit to the Court file an additional memorial submitted by the applicant which had been received by the Registrar on 7 August 1996 (Rule 37 para. 1).

Following this report, the decision was taken to charge Mr Findlay with a number of offences arising out of the incident on 29 July (see paragraph 14 below).

In her report of January 1991, Dr Blunden confirmed that Mr Findlay was fit to plead and knew what he was doing at the time of the incident. However, his chronic back problem (which caused him to be frustrated and depressed at not being fit for duty in his Northern Ireland posting) together with "his previous combat stresses and a very high level of alcohol ... combined to produce this dangerous behaviour".