non-fatal offences

Question 1

what section does assault and battery come under?

Answer 1

s.39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988

Question 2

AR of assault

Answer 2

Causing the victim to apprehend immediate and unlawful force

Question 3

MR of assault

Answer 3

Intention or recklessness to the assault

Question 4

R v Constanza

Answer 4

Written letters can amount to an assault

Question 5

R v Ireland

Answer 5

Written letters can amount to an assault

Question 6

Tuberville v Savage

Answer 6

Negated threats do not amount to an assault

Question 7

AR of battery

Answer 7

The application of unlawful force

Question 8

MR of battery

Answer 8

Intention or recklessness as to the battery

Question 9

R v Thomas

Answer 9

Touching clothes can amount to battery

Question 10

What is an omission?

Answer 10

A failure to act

Question 11

Statuory Duty

Answer 11

s.170 Road Traffic Act 1988-duty to stop and report a road traffic incident

Question 12

Contractual Duty

Answer 12

R v Pitwood

Question 13

Duty because of a relationship

Answer 13

R v Gibbins and Proctor

Question 14

A duty which arises because the defendant set in motion a chain of
events

Answer 14

R v Miller
DPP v Santa-Bermudez

Question 15

The duty of doctors

Answer 15

Airedale NHS Trust v Bland

Termination of a Duty – the duty to care can be ended.
There can be cases where doctors decide to stop treating a patient. They can terminate
their duty and not be found liable if it is in ‘the best interest of the patient’.

Question 16

Legal Causation

Answer 16

D can be guilty if they were more than a minimal cause. It does not have to be a substantial cause.
-R v Kimsey
-R v Blaue

Question 16

Factual Causation

Answer 16

D can only be guilty if the consequence would not have happened ‘but for’ D’s conduct.
-R v Pagett
-R v White

Question 17

Novus Actus Interveniens

Answer 17

• act of a third party
• victim’s own actions
  -act of God

Question 18

Act of Third Party (poor medical treatment)

Answer 18

Sufficiently independent of D’s conduct and sufficiently serious.
- R v Cheshire
- R v Smith
- R v Jordan
- R v Malcharek

Question 19

Victim’s own actions

Answer 19

• R v Roberts
• R v Marjoram
• R v Kennedy - drug was injected by V themself not the D

Question 20

Unreasonable reaction

Answer 20

If V’s reaction is unreasonable, then this can break the chain of causation.
R v Williams and Davies

Question 21

An intervening event

Answer 21

Where the V is injured, causation will be removed if the
injuries were slight but made worse by some event that could not have been predicted or prevented. Causation will not be removed if the defendant could have prevented the events by taking reasonable steps.

Question 22

Transferred Malice

Answer 22

This is where D can be guilty if he intended a similar crime, but it was against a different
victim.
Latimer - D aimed a blow with a belt at a man in a pub because that man had attacked him.
The belt bounced off the man and struck a woman in the face.
Held: D was guilty of an assault against the woman, although he
had not meant to hit her.

Question 23

Coincidence of AR and MR

Answer 23

-Thabo Meli v R
-Church
-Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner

Question 24

what section does ABH come under?

Answer 24

s.47 OAPA 1861

Question 25

AR of ABH

Answer 25

Assault or battery occasioning ABH

Question 26

MR of ABH

Answer 26

Intention or recklessness as to the assault or battery

Question 27

DPP v Smith

Answer 27

D had an argument with his girlfriend. He then cut off her ponytail and some hair from the top of her head without consent. He was charged with an offence under S.47. The magistrates found there was no case to answer as they thought that cutting hair could not amount to ABH. P appealed and the Divisional Court held that cutting off a substantial amount of hair could be ABH.

Question 28

Psychiatric Harm can amount to ABH

Answer 28

R v Chan Fook (1994) - but they did point out that ABH does not include ‘mere emotions' such as fear, distress or panic nor does it include states of mind that are not themselves, evidence of some identifiable clinical condition is needed’.

Question 29

Miller's further definition of ABH

Answer 29

'any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim'

Question 30

AR of s.20 GBH

Answer 30

to inflict wounding or GBH 'Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously wound or inflict any grievous bodily harm upon any person, either with or without a weapon or instrument, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable...to imprisonment for not more than five years’

Question 31

MR of s.20 GBH

Answer 31

The defendant must intend or foresee (Cunningham recklessness) that he or she may cause some kind of harm. -The section uses the word ‘maliciously’. In Cunningham (1957) it was held that maliciously did not require any ill will towards the victim it simply meant: * An intention to do the particular kind of harm that was in fact done or * Recklessness as to whether such harm should occur or not (i.e., the accused has foreseen that the particular kind of harm might be done and yet gone on to take the risk of it).

Question 32

DPP v Smith

Answer 32

further defined as 'really serious harm'

Question 33

Wounding

Answer 33

A wound is a cut or a break in the continuity of the whole skin. Therefore, a cut of internal skin on the cheek is sufficient but internal bleeding where there is no cut of the skin is not sufficient.

Question 34

R v Dica

Answer 34

infecting others with HIV is GBH

Question 35

s.18 GBH

Answer 35

The definition of a section 18 in the act states ‘Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously by any means whatsoever wound or cause any grievous bodily harm to any person, with intent to do some grievous bodily harm to any person, or with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person shall be guilty of...any offence’.

Question 36

AR of s.18 GBH

Answer 36

to wound or cause grievous bodily harm.

Question 37

MR of s.18 GBH

Answer 37

the D must have intended to do some grievous bodily harm or resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person.

Question 38

Woollin (1998)

Answer 38

intention cannot be found unless the harm caused was a virtual certainty as a result of the defendant’s actions and the defendant realised that this was a no