Involuntary Manslaughter - Unlawful Act Manslaughter

Question 1

Involuntary manslaughter

Answer 1

actus reus of murder has taken place but without the mens rea for murder

also referred to as constructive manslaughter.

R v Goodfellow - set out unlawful manslaughter in case law.

Question 2

Involuntary Manslaughter - Unlawful Act Manslaughter

Answer 2

Actus Reus of murder has taken place, but without the mens rea for murder.

Also referred to as constructive manslaughter.

R v Goodfellow - unlawful manslaughter is set out by this case law

Question 3

Actus Reus-

1) The act must be unlawful

Answer 3

R v Lowe - There must be an act - an omission is not sufficient and it must be a criminal offence.

R v Franklin - The unlawful act must be a criminal act.

R v Mitchell - The unlawful act does not need to be directed at the victim or direct at the person. R v Goodfellow supported this.

R v Lamb - All of the elements of the unlawful act must be present in order for a defendant to be guilty of unlawful act manslaughter.

Question 4

Actus Reus -

2) The act must be dangerous

Answer 4

Dangerous is defined in R v Church and is it an objective test.

The test was whether or not an act was dangerous was objective test as to whether ‘all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise must subject the other person to, at least, the risk of some harm resulting therefrom, albeit not serious harm.’

Question 5

Part two of seconds actus reus

2b) The defendant must have been acting dangerously to be guilty

Answer 5

R v Jm and SM
What matters is whether reasonable and sober people would recognise that the unlawful activities of the defendant inevitably subjected the deceased to the risk of some physical harm resulting from them.

R v Dawson

R v Watson
The jury must decide whether the actions of the defendant were dangerous by looking at the actions from a pov of a reasonable man who knew all the facts that they know whether a risk of physical injury would be created.