Assault Flashcards
There are five main offences relating to violence against a person, these range in severity:
- Common Assault
- Assault by Beating (Battery)
- Actual Bodily Harm (‘ABH’)
- Wounding/ inflicting Grievous Bodily Harm (‘GBH’)
- Wounding/ causing Grievous Bodily Harm (‘GBH’) With Intent
What is Common Assault?
s39 Criminal Justice Act 1988
“any act by which a person intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful personal violence”.
Assault by threat only, e.g:
- E.g I’m going to slap you, or conditional threat (if you do this I’ll___)
What is Assault by Beating (Battery)?
s39 Criminal Justice Act 1988
Application of intentional or reckless unlawful force to another, physical contact occurs but with minor / no injury.
What is Actual Bodily Harm (‘ABH’)?
s47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Application of force to another, the victim receives hurt or injury which has disrupted the health or comfort of the victim. Capable of being seen or felt by victim, including psychiatric although this must be supported by medical evidence.
Needs to be proved assault was intended or carried out recklessly. Doesn’t need to be proved they intended to cause injuries that amounted to ABH.
A triable either-way offence with a max penalty of 5 years imprisonment.
What is Wounding/ inflicting Grievous Bodily Harm (‘GBH’)?
s20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
Offence to “unlawfully and maliciously ..wound another person” or to “inflict grievous bodily harm”
The victim receives life-changing injuries, e.g breaking all layers of skin, broken bones, biological harm, heavy bleeding or significant psychological injury.
Age and characteristics of person is taken into account.
Triable on indictment only and penalty is 7 years imprisonment.
What is Wounding/ causing Grievous Bodily Harm (‘GBH’) With Intent?
s18 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
“Unlawfully and maliciously by any means whatsoever wound or cause any grievous bodily harm to any person…with intent to do some grievous bodily harm to any person, or with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person”.
Triable on indictment only and penalty is life imprisonment.
What are non-fatal offences?
Offences against a person that don’t result in death. It does, however, result in various degrees of injury.
What would constitute the mens rea of any offence of assault?
The intention of the offender to commit any offence of assault, or be acting recklessly.
Give an example of acting intentionally?
Nadeem punches Alan in the mouth wanting to bust his lip and the lip bleeds after the blow (The injury brought about is exactly the desire of the instigator)
Give an example of acting recklessly?
Syeda and Peter are throwing stones out of a window onto a busy street (the chance of injury is considered a likely result from planned force and the instigator goes on to use that force).
What happens when ‘assaults’ are found to be purely accidental?
There is normally no offence committed.
For example, if, when walking down the high street, you were to trip forward and hit someone on the back, this would be purely accidental as there is no mens rea.
As with all offences, assaults may be proven as a result of a transfer of malice. What does this mean?
If person A intends to commit an offence on person B, that intent may be transferred to another victim, person C, for that (or a like offence). For example:
During a pub fight, Alex throws his glass across the bar intending for it to hit James. Seeing it coming, James ducks out of the way. The glass hits Tony instead causing injury to his face.
Alex intended (the mens rea) to cause injury, the offence is complete. Therefore, the doctrine of transferred malice means that Alex may be guilty of the assault and battery of Tony, despite the fact that he was not his intended target.
What is the distinction between a common assault and battery?
In common law, an assault is “any act by which a person intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful personal violence”.
Therefore, an assault, in itself, does not require any physical application of force on another person. The distinction between a victim experiencing the application of force and a victim apprehending that force is thus relevant.
What kind of an offence is assault?
A summary offence under common law
What is the Actus Reus of assault?
Any unlawful act which leads to the victims apprehension that something bad might happen to them.
The acts can extend to…actions, words or even silent phone calls.
Saying I will not hurt you can prevent assault.
What is the Actus Reus of battery?
The application of unlawful force to another.
What is battery in practice?
The application of unlawful force can occur without assault for example when the victim is hit in the back of his head.
Any unlawful physical contact can amount to battery, such as slapping or pushing.
There is no need to prove harm or pain.
Do you need to apply force directly to the victims body for it to be counted as battery?
No- touching the victims clothing can amount to it too - even if they didn’t feel a thing.
What is the Actus Reus of ABH?
The application of unlawful force to another which leads to injuries classed as ABH.
It is necessary to prove the existence of assault or battery.
Does physical pain have to always be the case for ABH?
No- cutting someones hair was held to be ABH as said in DPP v Smith (2006)
What is the mens rea of GBH?
The defendant had either intended to cause harm or was subjectively reckless - this means there must have been some awareness of the risk of harm involved.
Give two examples where a threat constitutes an assault:
During an argument, THACKER brings his fist back and threatens SMITH so that SMITH thinks he is about to get punched. Offence complete.
A collection of silent phone calls that caused the victim to believe that they were about to be attacked have been held to constitute an offence and the instigator can be held liable for any injury sustained as a result, physical or otherwise. Offence complete.
Grievous is described in law as “really serious injury”. GBH injuries can take many forms, for example:
Breaking of skin, with loss of blood Broken bones Deep bruising and internal bleeding Significant psychological injury Infection with or debilitating diseases, e.g. reckless transmission of HIV.
When a suspect causes an injury that is consistent with GBH, which section is the most commonly used to prosecute the offence?
Section 20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 is complete.
S20 is the most commonly used because it requires no proof of the suspect’s intention to cause the level of injuries acquired by the victim. The court must only prove that the suspect had the mens rea for some kind of assault.
Example 2 GBH s20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
ROBERTS becomes upset with the way that SMITH is looking at his boyfriend. ROBERTS shoves SMITH with two hands to the chest. SMITH is pushed backwards, loses her footing and falls to the ground, fracturing her skull on the concrete curb. ROBERTS had no intention to cause the level of injuries sustained in this case. Under s20 GBH complete.
Example 2 GBH Section 20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
JAMES meets MORRIS at a club and has consensual sex with her that evening. At the time, JAMES was unaware that six weeks previously, having had unprotected sex with another stranger who he knew was positive for Hepatitis B, he also contracted Hepatitis B. MORRIS is infected with Hepatitis B. JAMES had no intention to infect MORRIS but was reckless to the risk of infecting MORRIS with a sexually transmitted disease. Under s20 GBH complete.
