Human being - AG Reference 3- start of life is when the baby is delivered, end of life is when the brain stem dies as in Malcherek
Under the Queen's peace- not soldiers in wartime
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Causation
Death must be caused by unlawful act of the defendant
Factual causation as in R v White - But for the defendants actions, the victim would not have died
Legal causation as in R v Pagett - more than a minimal cause but need not be the sole cause
Chain of causation must always remain intact so there can be no intervening act that breaks the chain
As a general rule medical treatment does not break the chain unless it is palpably wrong as in R v Jordan - in R v Cheshire the original wound was still the operating cause of death
Actions of the victim must be foreseeable as in R v Roberts and not daft as in R v Williams
Eggshell skull rule - R v Blaue
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Mens Rea
Malice aforethought, express or implied
Express = intention to kill
Implied = intention to seriously injure as in Cunningham
Direct intention = the result was D's aim, purpose and objective as in Mohen
Oblique intention = if killing was a virtually certain consequence and D saw it as virtually certain
R v Nedrick said that D must have realised that his actions were virtually certain to lead to death or serious injury
R v Matthews and Allayne said this was a substantive test, not evidential
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