Accused diagnosed as having sexsomnia

A man who allegedly raped his female friend while he was asleep had been diagnosed by a sleep expert as having sexsomnia in the months before the incident and during it, the Central Criminal Court has been told.

“He was in automatism due to his sleep disorder. He was unaware of what he had done,” Dr John Michael Shneerson, former director of a UK sleep clinic and author of The Handbook Of Sleep Medicine, told Hugh Hartnett, defending.

He said it was his personal opinion that the accused “fits very well with sexsomnia”.