Criminal Damage

Roe v Kingerlee [1986]

Damage includes property requiring cleaning or expense to restore—it need not be permanent.

Fiak [2005]

Temporary impairment of a property's usefulness is sufficient to amount to damage.

Fisher [1977]

Damage includes temporary impairment of value or usefulness even without permanent physical harm.

R v Grajewski [2019]

Recklessness for criminal damage is subjective—the defendant must foresee the risk and unreasonably take it.

A (A Juvenile) v R [1978]

Impairing the usefulness or function of property amounts to damage.

Morphitis v Salmon [1990]

Minor harm is not criminal damage if it does not meaningfully reduce the property's value or usefulness.

Baker

Even relatively minor physical harm can constitute criminal damage.

Cresswell v DPP [2006]

Property requiring cleaning (e.g. after being spat on) can amount to damage.

R v Smith [1974]

Property "belongs to another" if another has custody, control, a proprietary right or charge over it.

Appleyard

A person may commit criminal damage to property they partly own if it also belongs to another.

Jaggard v Dickinson [1981]

An honestly held belief in the owner's consent is a lawful excuse, even if unreasonable or induced by intoxication.

Blake v DPP [1993]

The protection of property defence fails where there is no immediate need to protect property.

AG's Reference (No. 1 of 2023)

Articles 10 and 11 ECHR do not provide a defence to criminal damage committed during protest.

Hunt [1978]

The protection of property defence depends on the defendant's honest belief that the damage was necessary.

DPP v Ditchfield [1994]

An honestly held belief that damage was necessary to protect property can establish lawful excuse even if mistaken.

Lloyd v DPP [1992]

The threat to property must be immediate or imminent for the protection of property defence.

Steer [1988]

Aggravated criminal damage requires actual criminal damage—mere intent without damage is insufficient.

Dudley [1989]

For aggravated criminal damage, life must be endangered by the damage itself.

Parker

Aggravated criminal damage requires that the damage itself creates the danger to life.