Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm Flashcards
What Act and Section number is ABH listed under?
S.47 of the Offences Against The Persons Act 1861
What is the Actus Reus for ABH?
Assault or battery, Occasioning - bring the consequence, Actual bodily harm - causing further harm by the assault or batter
The actus rea is that of an assault or battery plus the consequences of the
Whats rule concerning pain for ABH?
The harm may be the natural consequence of the assault, no matter how sight, pain or discomfort is sufficient
Case and POL for R v Roberts?
Case - D touched V sexually on her clothes, frightened she jumped out the car
POL - Touching her clothes sufficient for battery which also included the clinical psychiatric damage cause by the defendants actions
Case and POL for R v Chan-Fook?
Case - Defendant aggressively questioned man who supposedly stole his fiancé’s jewellery and locked him in room upstairs so he escaped by jumping out window
POL - COA stated that ‘Bodily harm’ is not limited to harm to the skin, flesh and bones it includes organs, nervous system and the brain as well as psychiatric injury
Who decides if a ABH has occurred?
The Jury
Whats the conviction rule concerning psychiatric harm?
Cannot be a conviction under S.47 unless a psychiatrist has given evidence of a recognisable psychiatric illness
Case and POL for R v Ireland?
Case - Large amounts of silent phone calls placed to 3 women, which cause all of them psychiatric harm
POL - Silent phone calls causing psychiatric harm can count as ABH
Case and POL for DPP v Smith
Case - D assaulted his former partner by cutting off her pony-tail with scissors
POL - Cutting hair can count to ABH as hair is part of the body
What is the Mens Rea?
The defendant is guilty even if he did not intend to cause a injury
Case and POL for R v Savage?
Case - Threw drink over husbands gf and glass flew out her hands aswell cutting & breaking the gfs wrist
POL - As she intended to apply unlawful force of the drink is sufficient mens rea for battery meaning there was no need to prove that she intended or was reckless
