NON FATAL OFFENCES

Assault definition

• Collins v Wilcock

• Assault is an act which causes another person to apprehend the infliction of immediate, unlawful force on his person.

ASSAULT ACTUS REUS: must be positive act

• Fagan v MPC

• Mere words can amount to assault:

• R v Ireland

  • Silent telephone calls can also be assault.

Murder Actus Reus: Apprehension

Apprehension: Engendering an expectation of immediately forthcoming violence

• Prove fear in the victim’s mind: R v Constanz

1. Immediate and unlawful force

• State of mind of the victim which is crucial, rather than the statistical risk of violence occuring within a short space of itme.

• DPP v Ramos

1. Immediate and unlawful force: Immediate” does not mean instantaneous, but that the violence is expected to occur in the near future (

Smith v Chief Superintendent of Woking Police Station

MENS REA

• D must intend to cause V to apprehend immediate unlawful force, or be reckless as to whether such apprehension is caused.

R v Savage

MENS REA: intention or reckless

• DPP v Parmenter

Battery definition

Collins v Wilcock

• Battery is the actual infliction of unlawful force on another person.

BATTERY AR: Most physical contacts of ordinary life are not actionable. Nobody can complain of the jostling which is inevitable in an underground station.

Collins v Wilcock

BATTERY AR: Touching can include touching the clothes of another.

R v Thomas

BATTERY AR: Touched indirectly with acid

DPP v K:

BATTERY AR: Accused pushed woman, who dropped the child. Though he did not touch the child it was an infliction of force against the child.

DPP v Haystead

BATTERY AR: Men in misogynistic acts sexually; when they were charged, their defence was that it was consented to.

R v Brown

WHERE IS ACTUAL BODILY HARM FOUND

S.47 OAPA

Definition of Actual bodily harm

• R v Donovan

  • Includes any hurt or injury calculated to interefere with the health or comfort of the victim.

CPS CHARGING STANDARDS ABH

• CPS CHARGING STANDARDS

1. Temporary loss of sensory functions, T v DPP: Loss of sensory function

2. Extensive or multiple bruising

3. Minor Fractures

4. Minor Cuts Requiring Stitching

5. Psychiatric treatment that is more than mere distress or panic.

Psychiatric bodily harm Claim

•  R v Ireland

  • If it is so serious it could be actual/grievious bodily harm.

  • R v Morris: Must have expert evidence

• Intention or reckless as to the common assault or battery

• R v Savage: ½ Mens Rea: Intention or recklessness as to the first half of AR. No need for intention or recklessness to cause GBH. 

• Consent is irrelevant when it comes to ABH.

R v Donovan

• R v Brown: consent of the victim is no answer to anyone charged with the latter offence.

Consent exception: properly conduct sports

 R v LLyod

WOUNDING / GBH FOUND IN?

• Section 20 and 18.

• 20: Whoever shall unlawfully and maliciously wound or inflict any grievous bodily harm upon another person.. shall be guilty of an offence.

Wounding definition

C (A minor) v Eisenhower: A break in the continuity of the skin.

• Must break all the way to the dermis. Usually when there is bleeding, the skin has broke all the way to the dermis.

• Abrasion was not a wound, not break in continuity of skin.

R v M’Loughlin

• Broken collarbone; not a wound.

R v Wood

What is GBH

• DPP v Smith: Serious injury to the body

• Serious psychiatric injury is grievious bodily harm

• R v Burstow:

GBH As long as force was applied can be direct or indirect.

R v Clarence:

GBH MR: Need not bre foreseeable the degree of harm.

• As long as he can foresee some  possibility of harm it does not need to be for wound or GBH. Not wound or grievous bodily harm.

R v Mowatt

Where is GBH Men’s rea found

S. 18 OAPA

Racially aggravated acts

• S. 28 Crime and Disorder Act 1998

  • At the time of comitting the offense or immediately before or after doing so, the offender demonstrates towards the victim of the offence hostility based on the victim’smembership (or presumed membership) of a racial or religious group.