Actus Reus Flashcards
AR, Omissions and Causation
Act
Act (or omission) must be voluntary (Hill V Baxter)
-conduct crime = AR is the prohibited conduct itself (e.g. drink driving)
-consequence crime = AR results in a consequence (e.g. ABH – Collins V Willcocks)
-state of affairs crime = AR is allowing a situation to exist (e.g. drug possession) - larsoner
Omission
general rules that omission is not an act, only when D has a duty of careD fails to act where there is a duty
Duty arising from Act of Parliament
e.g. failing to stop under Road Traffics Act 1988
Duty because of relationship
R v Gibbins and Proctor - (neglected one of several children)
Voluntary Duty
R V Stone and Dobinson - (volunteered to look after Stones’s elderly sister, died of malnutrition)
Contractual Duty
R V Singh - (DofC for landlord to maintain property, faulty gas caused fire causing death of tenants)
R V Pitwood
Public Duty
R V Dytham - (police man didn’t intervene in fight, V kicked to death)
Duty because D set in motion chain of events
R V Miller - (cig lit mattress on fire, moved to diff room, convicted of arson)
Causation
D must be factual and legal cause of the consequence without an intervening act
Factual Causation
BUT FOR TEST - if outcome would’ve resulted regardless of Ds conduct, not the cause
R v White - (D put poison in drink, evidence that death was caused by heart attack – only attempted murder)
R V Pagett - (held gf in front of himself as shield, police shot but D convicted of Manslaughter)
Legal Causation
D is more than the ‘minimal’ cause of the consequence
Operating and Substantial Cause (legal causation)
-operating = doesn’t need to be made reason – R v Benge
-substantial = conduct must be more than “de minimis” - R v Kimsey (death by dangerous driving)
Thin Skull Rule (legal causation)
Take V as you find them - if V has something that makes injury more serious, D will still be liable for that injury
R V Blaue - V stabbed but refused blood due to religion, D still convicted of murder
Intervening acts/ novus actus interveniens (legal causation)
situations where the sole cause of death or injury is a completely independent act
there must be a direct link between D’s conduct to the consequence
Break in causation by intervening act (legal causation)
-R V Jordan (V stabbed by D, treated in hospital when healing with antibiotic causing allergic reaction – doctor ordered LARGE dose of same drug next day, V died – enough to break chain for D, stab wasn’t substantial cause of death)
-R V Smith (2 soldiers fighting, 1 stabbed = taken to medical who gave chest compressions making injury worse – stab wound still more than minimal cause)
-R v Cheshire (V shot and given tube down throat to breath – 2 moths later V died from complications left by the tracheotomy undiagnosed by doctors - D still held guilty even though stab wounds had virtually healed)
