unlawful act manslaughter

Question 1

what is unlawful constructive manslaughter?

Answer 1

a type of involuntary manslaughter which is an unlawful killing where the defendant does not have the mens rea for murder malice aforethought

Question 2

how many elements must be satisfied?

Answer 2

4

Question 3

what is the first element?

Answer 3

firstly there must be a positive and unlawful act by the defendant which means criminal offence Larkin Lamb and not an omission Lowe The unlawful act need not be directed at the victim Mitchell and it need not be directed at a person Goodfellow

Question 4

what is the 2nd element?

Answer 4

the unlawful act must be dangerous. This is an objective test where the court will consider whether the reasonable person would have recognised a risk of some physical harm not necessarily the harm which results in death Dawson Watson Church

Question 5

what is the 3rd element?

Answer 5

there must be the necessary mens rea for the unlawful act. there is no need to intend or even foresee any harm Newbury and Jones Goodfellow

Question 6

what is the 4th element

Answer 6

the unlawful act must cause the victims death so the rules on causation must be satisfied Corbett Kennedy