Homicide-Related offences

Question 1

Infanticide

Answer 1

178
Infanticide
(1) Where a woman causes the death of any child of hers under the age of 10 years in a manner that amounts to culpable homicide, and where at the time of the offence the balance of her mind was disturbed, by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of

• giving birth to that or any other child
• lactation
• any disorder consequent upon childbirth or lactation

to such an extent that she should not be held fully responsible, she is guilty of infanticide, and not of murder or manslaughter, and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years.

Question 2

In charges of infanticide, it is for the jury to decide

Answer 2

on the mother’s state of mind.

Question 3

Sections 151, 152 and 153 concern the duty to….

Answer 3

provide those things and conditions necessary to sustain life and protect from injury. Death resulting from failure to meet the legal duty to provide the necessities of life and or protection form injury can amount to homicide.

Question 4

Duty to provide the necessaries and protect from injury

Answer 4

151
Duty to provide the necessaries and protect from injury
(1) Every one who has actual care or charge of a person who is a vulnerable adult and who is unable to provide himself or herself with necessaries is under a legal duty—
(a) to provide that person with necessaries; and
(b) to take reasonable steps to protect that person from injury

Question 5

Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury

Answer 5

152
Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury
(1) Every one who is a parent, or is a person in place of a parent, who has actual care or charge of a child under the age of 18 years is under a legal duty—
(a) to provide that child with necessaries; and
(b) to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury

Question 6

Duty of employers to provide necessaries

Answer 6

153
Duty of employers to provide necessaries

(1) Every one who as employer has contracted to provide necessary food, clothing, or lodging for any servant or apprentice under the age of 16 years is under a legal duty to provide the same, and is criminally responsible for omitting without lawful excuse to perform such duty if the death of that servant or apprentice is caused, or if his life is endangered or his health permanently injured, by such omission

Question 7

Vulnerable adult

Answer 7

Means “a person unable, by reason of detention, age, sickness, mental impairment, or any other cause, to withdraw himself or herself from the care or charge of another person”.

Question 8

Whether an adult is vulnerable is a matter for

Answer 8

objective determination and should not depend on that person’s subjective perception.

Question 9

Necessaries

Answer 9

There is no authority on what is meant by the concept of “necessaries” and may be regarded as a “somewhat broader concept” than “necessaries of life”.

Question 10

Under 151, s152 and s153 what does injury encompass?

Answer 10

“injury” encompasses not only bodily harm directly caused by other persons but also harm arising from human activities and non-human sources.

Question 11

Abandoning child under 6

Answer 11

154
Abandoning child under 6

Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who unlawfully abandons or exposes any child under the age of 6 years.

Question 12

Sections 155 and 156, respectively, deal with the duties of people who

Answer 12

are doing dangerous acts or who are in charge of dangerous things.

Question 13

Duty of persons doing dangerous acts

Answer 13

155
Duty of persons doing dangerous acts

Every one who undertakes (except in case of necessity) to administer surgical or medical treatment, or to do any other lawful act the doing of which is or may be dangerous to life, is under a legal duty to have and to use reasonable knowledge, skill, and care in doing any such act, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty.

Question 14

Duty of persons in charge of dangerous things

Answer 14

156
Duty of persons in charge of dangerous things

Every one who has in his charge or under his control anything whatever, whether animate or inanimate, or who erects, makes, operates, or maintains anything whatever, which, in the absence of precaution or care, may endanger human life is under a legal duty to take reasonable precautions against and to use reasonable care to avoid such danger, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty.

Question 15

Duty to avoid omissions dangerous to life

Answer 15

157
Duty to avoid omissions dangerous to life

Every one who undertakes to do any act the omission to do which is or may be dangerous to life is under a legal duty to do that act, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty

Question 16

Killing by influence on the mind

Answer 16

163
Killing by influence on the mind

No one is criminally responsible for the killing of another by any influence on the mind alone or by any disorder or disease arising from such influence, except by wilfully frightening a child under the age of 16 years or a sick person

Question 17

Acceleration of death

Answer 17

164
Acceleration of death

Every one who by any act or omission causes the death of another person kills that person, although the effect of the bodily injury caused to that person was merely to hasten his death while labouring under some disorder or disease arising from some other cause.

Question 18

Causing death that might have been prevented

Answer 18

165
Causing death that might have been prevented

Every one who by any act or omission causes the death of another person kills that person, although death from that cause might have been prevented by resorting to proper means.

Question 19

Causing injury the treatment of which causes death

Answer 19

166
Causing injury the treatment of which causes death

Every one who causes to another person any bodily injury, in itself of a dangerous nature, from which death results, kills that person, although the immediate cause of death be treatment, proper or improper, applied in good faith.

Question 20

Is the withdrawal of life support treatment?

Answer 20

No

Question 21

What is Novus acus Interviens

Answer 21

An intervening act that breaks the chain of causation

Question 22

What are the two rules that relate to when an injury must remain a substantial cause of death?

Answer 22

• death resulting from any normal treatment employed to deal with a felonious injury may be regarded as caused by the injury;
• in other circumstances, it is a question of fact to establish a causal connection between the death and the felonious injury;

Question 23

Example of s166

Answer 23

It was necessary to operate on a person as a result of an assault on him by the defendant. The person died under the administration of anaesthetic. It was held that this did not affect the defendant’s criminal responsibility

Question 24

Aiding and abetting suicide

Answer 24

179
Aiding and abetting suicide

Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who—

(a) Incites, counsels, or procures any person to commit suicide, if that person commits or attempts to commit suicide in consequence thereof; or
(b) Aids or abets any person in the commission of suicide.

Question 25

Suicide pact

Answer 25

180
Suicide pact

(1) Every one who in pursuance of a suicide pact kills any other person is guilty of manslaughter and not of murder, and is liable accordingly.
(2) Where 2 or more persons enter into a suicide pact, and in pursuance of it one or more of them kills himself, any survivor is guilty of being a party to a death under a suicide pact contrary to this subsection and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years; but he shall not be convicted of an offence against section 179 of this Act.
(3) For the purposes of this section the term suicide pact means a common agreement between 2 or more persons having for its object the death of all of them, whether or not each is to take his own life; but nothing done by a person who enters into a suicide pact shall be treated as done by him in pursuance of the pact unless it is done while he has the settled intention of dying in pursuance of the pact.

Question 26

Concealing dead body of child

Answer 26

181
Concealing dead body of child
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years who disposes of the dead body of any child in any manner with intent to conceal the fact of its birth, whether the child died before, or during, or after birth.

Question 27

Child

Answer 27

While the term “child” is not defined, the provision is evidently intended to refer to a child of comparatively recent birth

Question 28

The requirement that the act of disposal must be done with the intent of concealing the fact of birth may be satisfied even though the birth was known to some people but not others. Thus it will be enough that

Answer 28

the intent was to conceal the birth from a particular individual.

Question 29

Examples of “anything whatever” under s156

Answer 29

motor vehicles, 
trains, 
animals, 
ships, 
weapons, 
machinery 
explosives