Welcome Back Caffeine Casefilers! In this weeks episode I talk about the strange case of Ken Parks and how his sleeping disorder led him to killing and the attempted killing of his Mother and Father in-law

In the early morning hours of May 24, 1987, 23-year-old Ken Parks drove 20 kilometers from Pickering to Scarborough, let himself into his in-laws’ home with a spare key, and brutally attacked them with a tire iron, killing his mother-in-law . Covered in blood, he then drove to a police station and confessed, uttering the chilling words, “I think I have just killed two people” .

This seems like an open-and-shut murder case, but what if the killer has absolutely no memory of the crime? Parks’ defense was one of the most bizarre in Canadian legal history: he claimed he was asleep. This episode explores the landmark Supreme Court case R v Parks, diving into the science of sleepwalking, the distinction between “insane” and “non-insane” automatism, and the public’s skepticism over whether a man could commit such violent acts without consciousness or intent. Was this the perfect crime or a genuine neurological tragedy? Tune in to hear how a jury ultimately answered that question and set a precedent that still echoes today

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