The partial defence that reduces murder to voluntary manslaughter where the defendant killed having lost self-control in response to a qualifying trigger.
A successful plea does not acquit — it substitutes a manslaughter conviction for murder, which is why the defence's structure and limits matter. This chapter starts with how the defence operates and the burden of proof, including what the defendant must raise and what the prosecution must then disprove. It then works through the three statutory elements in turn: the loss of self-control itself, the fear and anger triggers that can qualify — with the exclusions for sexual infidelity and incited violence — and the objective test of the person of normal tolerance and self-restraint. It closes by distinguishing loss of control from diminished responsibility and self-defence.
