Unlawful Act Manslaughter (IM)

Question 1

What is involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 1

Unlawful killing without intention to kill or cause GBH

Question 2

What are the two ways of committing involuntary manslaughter?

Answer 2

• Unlawful act manslaughter
• Gross negligence manslaughter

Question 3

What is unlawful act manslaughter?

Answer 3

D causes death doing an unlawful and dangerous act with the necessary mens rea for the unlawful act

Question 4

What are the 4 key elements needed for UAC

Answer 4

• D must do an unlawful act (crime)
• The act must be dangerous on an objective test
• The act must cause the death
• D must have mens rea for the unlawful act

Question 5

Unlawful act

Answer 5

• Must be an act: omission is insufficient (e.g Lowe 1973)
• Must be a criminal offence
• Can be criminal damage or burglary

Question 6

Case for unlawful act

Answer 6

• Lamb 1967
• No unlawful act existed because they did not understand mechanism of a loaded gun
• V not in fear of being shot

Question 7

Dangerous

Answer 7

• All sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise that some harm may occur, albeit not serious harm
• Must be a risk of physical harm, not mere emotional disturbance (Dawson 1985)
• Doesn’t matter if D didnt realise there was a risk of harm to others (Goodfellow 1986)

Question 8

Case for dangerous

Answer 8

Church 1965

Question 9

Causation

Answer 9

Must cause death in fact and law: usual rules on causation apply

Question 10

Case for causation

Answer 10

• Kennedy 2007
• V’s voluntary act in injecting himself broke the chain of causation

Question 11

Mens rea

Answer 11

Mens rea for initial act, no need to prove D realises the act is dangerous/unlawful/forsees a risk of harm

Question 12

Case for mens rea

Answer 12

Newbury and Jones 1976
D only needs MR for unlawful act