Assault & Battery: Comprehensive Study Notes

Assault and Battery: Key Legal Concepts

Overview

Assault and battery are distinct legal concepts often discussed together due to their shared underlying principle of unlawful force or the threat of it. They are criminal justice offenses.

Criminal Justice Act 1988, s.39
  • Summary Offenses: Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 states that "Common assault and battery shall be summary offences and a person guilty of either of them shall be liable…". This means they are less serious offenses typically heard in magistrates' courts.
Collins v Wilcock (1984)
  • This landmark case clearly distinguishes between assault and battery:
    • Assault: An act that causes another person to apprehend the immediate infliction of unlawful force on their person.
    • Battery: The actual infliction of unlawful force on another person.

1. Assault

Definition
  • Fagan v MPC (1968): "An assault is any act which intentionally – or possibly recklessly – causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful personal violence."
Elements of Assault
A. Actus Reus (The Guilty Act)

  1. "Any act": This refers to the conduct that forms the basis of the assault.

    • Fagan v MPC (1968) identified "any act" as a core element.
    • Verbal Assaults: Historically, there was debate about whether words alone could constitute an assault. However, R v Ireland; R v Burstow (1997) clarified this:
      • The court deemed the proposition that gestures could be an assault but words could not as "unrealistic and indefensible."
      • "A thing said is also a thing done." Words are capable of causing an apprehension of immediate personal violence (e.g., a threat like, 'Come with me or I will stab you' in a dark alley).

  2. Causing apprehension of "immediate and unlawful personal violence":

    • "Apprehension": The victim must genuinely expect immediate violence.
      • Logdon v DPP (1976): If the victim thinks a gun is real and loaded, pointing it at them counts as assault, even if it's not. The victim's apprehension is key.
      • R v Lamb (1967): If the victim thinks the gun is fake or unloaded, it's not an assault, even if it would have been capable of harm. Again, the victim's apprehension dictates.
      • The central question is: Did the victim apprehend immediate violence?
    • "Immediacy": The threat of violence must be perceived as happening soon.
      • Smith v Chief Superintendent of Woking Police Station (1983): A victim's fear of what the defendant might do next, and that whatever it was, it would be violent and 'sufficiently immediately' for the purposes of the offense, satisfied the immediacy requirement. The lack of precise knowledge about what or when doesn't negate immediacy if the overall fear is of impending violence.
B. Mens Rea (The Guilty Mind)
  • Intentionally or Recklessly: The defendant must intend to cause the apprehension of immediate and unlawful personal violence, or be reckless as to whether such apprehension occurs.
    • Fagan v MPC (1968): States that assault is an act which "intentionally – or possibly recklessly – causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful personal violence."
    • Recklessness: This concept has evolved through case law:
      • R v Cunningham (1957): Defined recklessness as the accused foreseeing that a particular kind of harm might be done and consciously taking the risk.
      • R v G & Another (2003): A more modern definition. A person acts recklessly if they are aware of a risk that a result will occur, and it is unreasonable in the circumstances known to them to take that risk.

2. Battery

Definition
  • Fagan v MPC (1968): Battery is "the use of unlawful force to another person without his consent."
Elements of Battery
A. Actus Reus (The Guilty Act)

  1. "The use of force": This refers to the physical contact.

    • Collins v Wilcock (1984): "It has long been established that any touching of another person, however slight, may amount to a battery." This emphasizes that even minimal contact constitutes 'force'.

  2. "Unlawful": The force applied must not be legally permitted.

    • This element often relates to defenses such as self-defense, which would render the use of force lawful. (Refer to separate modules/slides on Self-defence for detailed information).

  3. "Without consent": The force must be applied without the victim's agreement.

    • Consent can negate the unlawfulness of the force. (Refer to separate modules/slides on Consent for detailed information).
B. Mens Rea (The Guilty Mind)
  • Intentionally or Recklessly: The defendant must intend to apply force to another person, or be reckless as to whether force is applied.
    • R v Venna (1975): "The element of mens rea in the offence of battery is satisfied by proof that [D] intentionally or recklessly applied force to the person of another."

Further Reading

  • Textbook, section 7.1 is recommended for more information.