Non Fatal Offences Against The Person

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  • Non Fatal Offences against the person
    • Battery
      • 'Requires an application of unlawful force to another person.'
        • 'Unlawful force'
          • Collins v Willock - where D scratched the police officer - 'any touching, however slight may amount to battery'
        • Do you have to touch?
          • R v Thomas - touched clothes - battery can be from touching clothes as they are an intrinsic part of you.
        • Does the touching have to intent harm?
          • Hostility (intent of harm) is not enough on its own however, the current approach seems to say yes.
        • Can you batter indirectly?
          • R v Martin - (shouts fire with bar on door people hurt by running into door) - Indirect battery is allowed
    • Assault occasioning actual bodily harm
      • s.47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
      • Offence is committed when a person assaults another, causing actual bodily harm, an either way offence, max penalty of indictment of 5 years imprisonment.
        • What does 'actual bodily' mean?
          • Ordinary meaning (Miller) includes 'any hurt calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim'
            • More than transient and trifling but according to Chan Fook, 'not so trivial as to be insignificant'
          • What if V loses consciousness?
            • R(T) v DPP where V chased tripped up and unconscious - More vulnerable when unconscious so at least s.47 liable
      • Mens Rea?
        • Recklessness - no need to intend the result. R v Roberts -strokes coat of hitchhiker jumps out car and injured. Didn't foresee but was reckless.
    • Malicious Wounding or Inflicting GBH
      • S.20 Offences against the person act 1861
      • Unlawfully, maliciously wound or inflict any grievous bodily harm with or without a weapon liable for no more that 5 years imprisonment.
        • Wound
          • Cut or break in the continuity of the skin - has to go through all layers. Internal bleeding is not enough for wounding. JCC v Eisenhower shot in eye, blood vessel burst but not a break in all layers of skin. Not liable.
        • Meaning of GBH
          • DPP v Smith - no more or less than really serious harm - Now have to instruct juries on if it was serious enough
        • Take V as you find them - R v Bollom
        • Meaning of inflict
          • Old approach was Wilson (Clarence) now would follow R v Ireland Burstow cause and inflict are similar.
          • Psychiatric Injury - don't need physical contact and it can be inflicted. Biological GBH - intentional transmission of disease, It can be inflicted recklessly - Cuerrier or R v Dica
        • Malicously
          • Means Reckless - the conscious taking of an unjustifiable risk - R v Parmenter
    • Wounding or causing GBH with intent
      • S.18 offences against the person act 1861
        • Sentence of up to and including life
          • Specific intent - directly or obliquely. Either do some GBH or resist/prevent lawful detention (R v Morrison). Reckless is not enough. Oblique is the same intent for murder. e.g. R v Woolin.

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